


Sadeness

by FuwaFuwaMedb



Category: Fate/EXTRA, Fate/Grand Order, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Vampire, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-08-07
Packaged: 2019-11-12 03:52:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 45,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18003305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FuwaFuwaMedb/pseuds/FuwaFuwaMedb
Summary: Was it a plague? Fear mongering? Insurgents? Hakuno wasn't sure what to expect when the mission had come to the organization, demanding that she and her mentor take a small medical team into Uruk to investigate a plague that had allegedly taken out the entire city within a night, leaving only trails of blood and bloodless bodies.A plague could not compare to what lay beneath the golden foundation of the temple, nor to the source of the calamity that would be to come.





	1. Knocking on Forbidden Doors

Sources described the village as a collection of bloodied houses and dehydrated bodies.  
  
The advice given to people that wandered through the area was simply: don’t. The unknown contagion that was running through the city was lethal and quick. It overcame the city at night, taking the lives of people of all ages. There would be no leniency for anyone who went into the zone.  
  
Hakuno looked out the window, letting the lull of the car and the gentle whir of the engine guide her and the team towards the destination: Uruk.  
  
It had been renamed and brought to immense success in the last twenty years. An unnamed rich man had personally seen to it that the city had been given rights to exist on farmland. The rich, fertile land had made great parks and good foundation for skyscrapers and an obnoxious rebuild of a ziggurat. Or- that’s what the city had mentioned in their advertisement. They had insisted to build it and seal the doors of the place.  
  
“Is there a problem, Hakuno?”  
  
Looking over at the strange man joining them, Hakuno shook her head. “No, Mr. Enkidu. I’m just debating if the farmland that the city was built on could have caused the trouble. This also may also be a wild goose chase. Bandits are not unheard of in this area of the world. There’s also the possibility of terrorism.”  
  
Enkidu had come as a representative of the unknown rich man wanting to know what was going on with the city. Dressed in impeccable clothing and with hair longer than hers, it had only been introduction that had prevented her from mistakenly calling them a she. Although they seemed to prefer no gender for pronouns when outside of business…  
  
Which if they had their way, would be always.  
  
“Terrorism and crime have not existed in the city, Hakuno. And please don’t call me Mister. It breaks my heart to hear someone whom I think of as an equal call me such. My associate would appreciate a thorough search for the cause of the problem.”  
  
Thorough?  
  
“Enkidu,” Hakuno leaned forward in the van, getting closer to them. “A thorough inspection requires a good team. A big team. I appreciate your enthusiasm on the case, but please bear in mind that you’ve hired only five people to come with you on this venture.”  
  
“Five is more than enough.” Those odd eyes kept in direct contact with her gaze, “in fact, it may be too many.”  
  
She wasn’t going to bother responding to that.  
  
Rich people.  
  
Once again, she let her eyes go to the terrain outside.  
  
It was mostly desert and grassland respectively from Cairo to here. She had stayed close to Emiya until Enkidu had insisted on being alone with her. Being the one financing the W.H.O. for this part of the world, they had her in the car without hesitation. Her bags had been dumped into the trunk and her companions had promised to be close behind.  
  
Close behind was more like kilometers though. She hadn’t seen a car in ages.  
  
“What made you become a doctor for your organization?” Enkidu asked.  
  
“Hmm? Oh, sorry.” They had pulled her attention away and it had taken a second to understand the question at all. “I became a doctor to save people. I don’t know why, but when I was little, I used to dream about dying in someone’s arms and I decided I can’t die if I can save people. I’m not sure how that logic works, but it got me through exams and now I help in this area of the world.”  
  
“Interesting.”  
  
Boring.  
  
She had told that answer to Emiya when he had hired her as his assistant and medical apprentice. She had been so eager to have an interesting tale that would set her apart from the candidates he had chosen against to take her on that the story had come right out. The answer she had received from him had been a frown and a quick subject change.  
  
Others had chalked it up to a passed life experience. Tamamo had dumped her over it, saying she cried a man’s name in her sleep while they had dated and ended up speaking gibberish at times when they were waking up in the morning.  
  
It had been four times that she had heard that. No more dating after Tamamo, she had decided.  
  
“Do you remember what happened in the dream?”  
  
“I died in a place of gold, which probably means financial issues were plaguing me even as a kid. Dreams don’t really mean anything. It’s people that add meaning to them. It’s the same way with superstitions and demons.”  
  
“Are you anti-religious?”  
  
“Agnostic. I believe in something, but my gut makes the moral rules. Gods and the like need to give me a real sign before I sign myself up for believing in anything.”  
  
Enkidu nodded. “I am polytheistic.”  
  
“Ah, Zeus? Ra? Danu?”  
  
“Sumerian gods.”  
  
“That’s different. How often do you find company for practicing your religion?”  
  
“I don’t have to worry about that.”  
  
And back to the window.  
  
Thanksgiving dried up trees and rich soil were a perfect dichotomy, making her frown as they passed more. There wasn’t an absence of life in all forms, but…  
  
Vultures picked at bodies as corpses lay on the ditches, bodies filled with maggots and vileness. The more she looked, the more she found herself pausing.  
  
“Driver! Stop for a moment!”  
  
“What’s wrong, Hakuno? We are still a good distance from Uruk.”  
  
But she was already putting on her hazmat suit, fixing the helmet into place before climbing out of the van. There was no time to waste, she thought as she hurried to the closest body.  
  
The body couldn’t have been more than early twenties. Their body had been dead for a while. There were no signs of stab wound on the chest or signs of a struggle. Hakuno took a moment to lay the body flat, examining the eyes next. The eyes were all but gone now, most likely from the vultures and other scavengers around here.  
  
Her hands went to the pocket of her suit, pulling out a syringe and drawing blood first. With that safely contained in a tube and in a plastic baggie, she fixed it back into her pocket and debated on nail and hair samples.  
  
She could also move the body…  
  
“Hakuno!”  
  
She paused as she felt a hand on her shoulder. Her eyes drifted up to the owner of that hand, disbelief only growing at his audacity.  
  
“Enkidu! This is a quarantined zone!”  
  
“We aren’t in the quarantine zone yet,” they corrected. “it’s not for another four kilometers.”  
  
“Then the zone is in need of expansion! Geez, Enkidu! If this is an airborne pathogen-“  
  
She gasped, unable to breathe as the man pulled the helmet from her head. Her hand moved without preamble, smacking soundly against the man.  
  
“I probably deserved that, but it’s not airborne.”  
  
They didn’t know that. She could die at any moment.  
  
What a way to die too. All alone with this rich underling and their driver. It really didn’t inspire her to go any further…  
  
Still, she had been hired to do a job.  
  
If they didn’t find the cause of this, then they’d be facing a crisis unlike any other. The governments of the countries around this one would become involved. Panic would run more rampant. Right now, they all knew of rumors. They knew the military was watching 20 kilometers outside the city on all sides, preventing unwanted guests.  
  
The founder of Uruk was paying them quite well too.  
  
“Hakuno?”  
  
“Do not do that ever again,” she hissed at the man. “If you undermine my precautions again, we’ll both be killed by whatever this is. Your boss will end up having to hire new people if we don’t come back.”  
  
“My apologies.”  
  
Yeah, I’ll bet they were sorry. She huffed, turning back to the body. Once more, she fixed the helmet into place and knelt down again.  
  
“We have a timeline, Hakuno,” Enkidu pointed out.  
  
“This is what we came to investigate.”  
  
“No, this is just a useless body. We are going into Uruk to search through the city and find the source of what is going on. We are looking for signs of the divine one from the stories.”  
  
What?  
  
Hakuno scowled at them, “Plague. We’re investigating the possibility of a new plague. Why on earth would I give a shirt about those stupid rumors? That’s just fear mongering at work with that bullshit.”  
  
Enkidu motioned towards the van again. “Hakuno… please. I promised I’d keep you on the timeline.”  
  
“Do you want to strap the body to the roof?”  
  
“There will be more bodies. Many more.”  
  
She turned back to the body one last time.  
  
She needed to Investigate this body. Investigating the ones in the city would be only those from a week or more of decomposing. This one, for lack of better description, was riper than the others. It had much more promise.  
  
They couldn’t put it in the van though. If the problem was blood oriented or due to skin contact, she’d be signing the three of them up for death. Airborne was still a possibility, but that was something she’d just have to bear the burden of responsibility for alongside Enkidu.  
  
“…Fine. Let’s keep moving.”  
  
“Excellent!” Enkidu waved at the van, having it kick back into gear. “Come along, Hakuno. We’re on a tight schedule.”  
  
She looked back at the body, hating the fact that she had to leave it. There would be others, but…  
  
Morbidly, she hoped there would be another good body for samples.  
  
“Hakuno! Come along!” Enkidu was waving again from the vehicle, bringing her over and once more into her seat in the van. As per protocol, she didn’t remove her suit until the van was safely closed and once more they were heading towards Uruk.  
  
“You didn’t have to stop me,” Hakuno argued, pulling off her gloves and putting them in a bag. They could be disposed of later.  
  
“I have been informed in great detail how much I need to keep to the schedule.” Enkidu looked at their phone and cursed. “And now we’re running even more late. He will not like this. HE won’t like it at all. I was supposed to have more time.”  
  
The man looked behind them and shook their head again, glaring back behind them.  
  
“What’s wrong?” Hakuno looked behind them, at the car that was speeding in their direction. The vehicle honked loudly, picking up speed at the sight of them. “What the hell are they doing? We aren’t going to go investigating that much without them.”  
  
“Ms. Hakuno. I must insist on a seatbelt. This is going to become a bumpy ride.” Enkidu knocked on the front window, yelling something at the driver.  
  
She paused at the strange language, vision swimming a moment as the start to what seemed to be a headache came to mind.  
  
“Ms. Hakuno?”  
  
“Why did you tell the driver to hurry up towards home?”  
  
“You understood me?”  
  
“Of course, it was…” She paused. The language hadn’t made sense. Actually, she wasn’t sure how she had known what the other had said. She just had known. A part of her mind had simply deciphered the language.  
  
But those eyes were brighter than before, Enkidu’s face fought a smile from forming.  
  
“Do you truly understand what I am saying to you? Do you know our language still, precious starlight?”  
  
The pain in her head lanced forth once again, making itself known as she winced.  
  
The van veered violently to the left, sending her falling back against her seat. She could hear the car honking again, loudly and repeatedly as they went through the area. Enkidu moved forward, wrapping their arms around her.  
  
She could feel her chest hurting now.  
  
“Enkidu…” Hakuno shook her head. “Enkidu, give me just a moment. I think the sample I took may be influencing my senses.”  
  
“It’s in the suit still.” Enkidu’s hands were unzipping the hazmat suit, trying to tug her out of the orange suit. For some reason, the hairs on the back of her neck were rising. “We should get the suit off, don’t you think?”  
  
“I’ll just be putting it back on,” Hakuno argued. “Let’s leave it.”  
  
Enkidu looked over as the car chasing them kept at their speed, the window rolling down. Emiya’s head poked out, the man yelling towards their vehicle. She could see a couple others from their team in the vehicle with them. Jeckyl was driving, keeping the car in place as Hyde was waving at her and motioning frantically.  
  
“What the hell are they doing?”  
  
“Speed up,” Enkidu told the driver in that strange language.  
  
“Pull over!” Hakuno yelled towards the man. She looked over at Enkidu. “They need something and they’ll just follow. Let’s not be idiots.”  
  
There was a boundary coming up. The car they were in was speeding up. The initial gates surrounding the city were right there. They were opening in response to welcome one car at a time. There must have been some camera or person still guarding the gates.  
  
“We need to slow down!” Hakuno waved and gestured at the other car, hating that the vehicle they were in was unable to unroll the windows. Those idiots were going to get themselves killed at this rate. They needed to pull themselves together.  
  
“Hakuno, I must insist that you sit down. You are invaluable and this will not be a pretty situation.” Enkidu tugged at her, pushing her into a seat and strapping her in. She tried to push his hands away so she could unbuckle, but they held on firmly. Too firmly.  
  
She had done weights in her condo. She knew she could handle the average person in strength. Emiya complained about it from time to time.  
  
Enkidu hadn’t seemed like someone she couldn’t handle. She had been wrong about that.  
  
“Enkidu, let me go. I need to stop this vehicle.”  
  
“I cannot let you do that, Ms. Hakuno. Stopping this vehicle would be a bit dangerous. I must deliver you in one piece and in a timely manner. It’s been insisted upon.”  
  
Insisted upon. That was not a phrase she wanted to hear.  
  
“Fine.”  
  
The man before her smiled. “Not to worry. We are getting close now. Within the next few minutes, we will arrive in the city and we can begin our task. I’m sure the process will be quick and relatively straightforward. You already show a good promise.”  
  
She nodded, looking away from them.  
  
The van was still speeding up, barreling towards the quarantine line. She could hear something happening behind them. Glancing back, she could see the other vehicle slowing. They were seeing the gates and not wanting to risk anything. They wanted to live to tell the tale.  
  
Lives were worth something.  
  
“Ah good. They are being smart. It would be unwise to go against the plan. They should hear soon enough that there is a change to how things are going to be done.”  
  
Yes, there would be.  
  
Hakuno didn’t hesitate.  
  
Her body lunged for the door of the van, throwing it open and listening to it slam wide open. Her body barreled out of the speeding vehicle, her arms wrapping around herself as she let herself go into a rolling motion.  
  
A stupid move, she decided in that lasting moment of airborne state. She was grateful the sample in her pocket wasn’t in a glass vial. It would survive impact. Be useful for the others.  
  
She could hear her name called into the wind.  
  
The ground came towards her though, greeting her violently. She could feel the ground slam against her body, crumpling it as she rolled over and over again. She couldn’t breathe as shock hit her system. It hadn’t been anywhere near as soft or smooth an impact. She could feel warmth against her head as her head hit the pavement.  
  
Over and over, into dust and dirt that covered her body and the suit. She could feel herself drifting into the grasslands, lacking any grass to cushion herself. The vehicles screeched to a halt as she heard tires squealing.  
  
Someone was screaming.  
  
She could hear them scream her name as she finally came to a stop. The sound of bullets in the air met her ears as pain began to set in.  
  
Such great pain.  
  
Hakuno closed her eyes, letting herself relax.  
  
Shock was a natural reaction and her body could lose its ability to function if she didn’t do whatever she could to keep the shock mostly at bay until the others got to her.  
  
Just a little longer, she thought to herself.  
  
She looked up, or rather, her body in her dreams looked up. Once again, before the glorious light of the sun, she could see a head of gold hanging over her. She could see golden walls nearby and sense someone speaking to her.  
  
It was the dream from so many nights. The man from those dreams was asking her not to die. No, they were demanding she not die.  
  
She didn’t want to die. Honest to gods, she didn’t want to die.  
  
Trying to move her body or lips, she tried to tell the man that.  
  
She didn’t want to die. She wanted to live.  
  
Nothing would come out of her lips though. Nothing would move. The only thing she could do was play the victim, waiting for death’s claim on her.  
  
Pain was setting in.  
  
Her arms, legs, head… everything that could hurt was hurting. She couldn’t even do anything about it either. Her body had gained weight since the last time she had used it. Movement was too much as she forced herself back to reality. Dust was before her face. The sun was beaming down at her.  
  
Another body for the maggots, she thought.  
  
How disappointed the others would be, after spending so much time trying to find a good candidate for the position with Emiya.  
  
The sunlight stopped shining on her though.  
  
Her eyes flickering towards the place where the sun had shone, Hakuno found herself looking up at long green hair and the same suit as before. The jacket they were wearing was undone though. She could see guns on either side of their waist. Blood was on their white shirt, coating it.  
  
“It was not supposed to be like this.” Enkidu murmured, looking her over. “Truly, he will be quite upset when he finds out what I must do to save you, but we have waited so long and we progressed things to this point. It would be an ill-fated waste to have things end here. Forgive me, Hakuno. If there were other options, I would take advantage of them.”  
What were they-  
  
Something lifted her up, into their arms. She could feel their lips against her own, something warm and liquid filling her mouth. Coppery to the taste. Thick and yet, as she was forced to drink it in as she tried to breathe through the pain, she could also feel that fluid running down her chin.  
  
The pain was numbing.  
  
How the pain was managing to be stopped in its tracks, she didn’t know, but it was stopping. She could see the man before her pull away again, wiping at their lips and closing their eyes.  
  
“Please, please forgive me. You have always been a close friend of mine and a companion unlike any other. I did not intend to share such with you, but there’s no choice. Thankfully, he thought ahead. I cannot save you so he will have to provide what you need.”  
  
What were they talking about?  
  
Hakuno stared at the bottle that the man brought forth from their jacket. The deep red drink lay within the bottle, leaving little doubt what it was as the light hit the bottle. Blood.  
  
“You must drink.”  
  
She didn’t want-  
  
The bottle’s lip was pressed to her own, tilting forward as the man laid her back against the ground and plugged her nose. She gasped, choking on the drink before another hand covered her mouth, careful to keep the bottle in place. She could feel their body on her own, pinning her down as she tried not to drink. If she just kept it in her mouth-  
  
But air…  
  
Her vision was swimming, her mind and her body arguing as she tried to think of something to do. She had to do something.  
  
“Breathe, Hakuno,” the man murmured. “Drink it in and then breathe. It will help.”  
  
It wasn’t helping her right now.  
  
She could feel her senses growing dim. The pain was gone, but she needed-  
  
_Breathe for me,_ a voice murmured in her mind. _Drink and breathe for me, Mongrel._  
  
Air.  
  
She needed air.  
  
The dark liquid went down quickly now as she gave in that much. She’d have to keep the bottle. She would need to keep the bottle. They would find out what Enkidu was doing to her and correct it later.  
  
The air reached her lungs soon enough. Her body felt weak as she looked up towards the heavens. Enkidu closed his eyes as she panted, sighing loudly as they smiled again.  
  
“Thank the gods. I couldn’t lose you again. The last time was hard enough. We ended up in a bad state, precious starlight.”  
  
“…En…kidu…” The voice came out so weakly from her. It was like her throat was dry. But that didn’t make much sense.  
  
Then again, being through the pain and suffering of whatever damage she had done from leaping from a speeding vehicle didn’t make much sense either. She should have been screaming in agony, prepared for death if not already stolen by death’s eager hands. There shouldn’t be this lack of anything.  
  
Truly, she should have been dead.  
  
“Relax, dear woman.” The man picked her up, cradling her once more in their arms as they began to walk. “You are going home. Finally. He will be pleased to see you again. I think we both missed you beyond words. I just… quickened things. You will see soon enough what I mean.”  
  
She needed to get away.  
  
“…Emi…ya…”  
  
“He’s dead.” Enkidu shrugged. “Your so called plague has come upon him, as it did with all of our followers. Unlike those idiots from your team, our followers understood what was coming. What was needed. That is why they lived as long as they had. We had all prepared, waiting for so long… Their lives had been put on hold much like our own, awaiting your arrival. When we sensed you, we all awakened. Our bringing forth the fodder was nothing more than biding time. We knew it would take a great force to call you to us.”  
  
“What are you talking about?”  
  
Where was Emiya? She tried to turn her head, seeing bodies littering the roadway. The other car was stopped, all the doors hanging open as Enkidu carried her towards their van.  
  
“Do not look. I was not merciful.”  
  
Not merciful- But that was an understatement. Her stomach churned at the sight of the bodies, seeing the heads off. The blood littering the ground. Bullet casings were on the road.  
  
Emiya was gone. As were the others. Lying in puddles as she was carried and set inside the van. Enkidu called out for the driver to move and looked down at her. Those strange eyes of theirs were narrowed, not in malice, but pity.  
  
“You need to rest, Hakuno.”  
  
“No…”  
  
_Rest,_ a voice murmured to her. _I will see you soon. I am waiting for you._  
  
“Who is that?” Hakuno found herself asking Enkidu.  
  
“Do you hear him already, Hakuno?” Enkidu’s arms pulled her to one of the seats, peeling off the hazmat suit and tugging at her clothes. “You are beyond impressive, my friend. As expected of someone of such promise.”  
  
The vehicle began to move as she felt their hands pulling off the last of her clothes.  
  
“I will wrap you in my robes for now, I suppose. I do not have proper attire for you now, but you need out of your bloodied garments. We have proper attire for you awaiting in your chambers. He will also expect you in unharmed condition. I’ll need our driver to take a long route to the ziggurat so that your body can correct the damage of that leap.”  
  
“Damn you…”  
  
_Rest._ The voice murmured.  
  
Her vision swam a moment later and she found her senses and the world gone.


	2. The Voice and the Snake

She awakened within waves of silks and furs.  
  
No itchy blanket from the organization, no flannel pajamas and the usual indication that she really needed to pull her hair free from the hairtie she had tied it up with. In fact, the more that she lay there, the more she realized there was no pain either.  
  
That was unusual. Considering how often she woke up with her back hurting or her shoulders sore, there was no reason she wouldn’t experience such lingering minor pains. There wasn’t even stiffness as Hakuno sat up, rubbing her eyes. Instead of anything, her body felt lighter than usual. She felt fully rested and just…  
  
Good. She felt good.  
  
Looking around, though, Hakuno rescinded that statement.  
  
Where the hell was she?  
  
She tried to shift, moving around some of the curtains around the bed, but it only brought her attention to the clothing she had on.  
  
A white dress.  
  
She looked at her arms, to the skirts next that splayed out around her waist and hips. Climbing to her feet, she could feel the stockings and-  
  
Someone had gotten her dressed. Someone had changed her clothes because she owned absolutely nothing that felt like the clothes she was wearing right now.  
  
There was little choice. She needed to leave.  
  
Once again, she was looking around the room, taking in more of the area around herself. The furs and red color was mimicked with the rugs and tapestries. There were gold vases and décor that littered the floors and tables in the room. A sitting area wasn’t far from the bed, facing a television and a game system of some sort. Maybe it was a movie system. She hadn’t honestly paid enough attention to such things to understand what they were on sight.  
  
The sound of the doorknob turning had her sprinting for the other door in the area, slipping through to enter an overly lavish bathroom. For a moment, she had to pause, taking in the beautiful marble and plush rugs that made up the room. A bathtub the size of that enormous bed in the other room was in here, just waiting.  
  
God, it was more like a mini pool than a bath!  
  
“I want this done before the others arrive,” a voice declared, pulling her back to the door. She leaned close, listening.  
  
“I know. I know,” Enkidu’s voice replied. That asshole was here? Hakuno narrowed her gaze, pressing an ear to the door. “I understand your excitement on the matter. It’s been a while, but we must take things slow. Human beings are delicate.”  
  
“But she isn’t human, thanks to your hard work. Therefore, we shouldn’t have-“  
  
A loud smack of paper against someone’s head could be heard before, “you’re an idiot, my king. You know full well that she’s not going to understand that fact when she wakes up. We’re both excited and need to keep things going slow. Already you’ve persuaded me to go further than was wise.”  
  
“I didn’t tell you to kill her companions.” The sound of the first man moving to a couch could be heard. A slight grunt came from him before something clicked on. “I won’t get carried away too quickly, I suppose, since you’re insistent. But I don’t see the problem.”  
  
“Remember that it won’t help your image of returning to power if the others see our power faltering in having a loose end. Ozymandias is relaxed about things, but Vlad and Arthur tend to lack that understanding and patience on things. You know full well that Arthur will get that chivalry kick going on if you aren’t careful.”  
  
“You’re preaching, Enkidu,” the man whined, shuffling from the sounds of it. “Check on Hakuno for me.”  
  
“Check on Hakuno,” Enkidu mimicked. “Of all the things you could be doing right now, you opt for space the moment she’s under our roof.”  
  
There was a pause.  
  
Hakuno could feel the anxiety building, her feet moving her slowly back from the door as she looked around. She needed to find somewhere else to hide. Somewhere that wasn’t the bathroom. Looking around though, she couldn’t-  
  
Her face met her reflection in the mirror, the look of tension written on her surprisingly clear complexion as she heard Enkidu suck in a breath and curse.  
  
“She’s not in bed!”  
  
“What the hell? Enkidu!”  
  
“Don’t get after me, she was just here!”  
  
“She must have gotten up earlier.” There was a great amount of looking around, cursing coming from both men as Hakuno moved a bit closer to the mirror and looked at herself more closely. She looked like a damn bride in this outfit, but it was the fact that her skin no longer had the sunburn from a few days ago. The signs of fatigue and stress were gone. Her skin looked flawless now, her hair looking as unneglected as a model’s for some odd ass reason.  
  
What the hell was going on?  
  
She ran a hand through her bangs, eyes drifting to the door as she heard one of the voices closer to the bathroom door.  
  
“Enkidu! We need to find her. I have Ramses coming soon. If she is awake, then we need things progressing. We can’t allow things to slip through our fingers, especially since you’ve done the great service of expediting the process.”  
  
“I understand!”  
  
The door slammed shut in the other room, leaving her to hesitate.  
  
Had they both left? Was one lingering?  
  
They were now on the lookout for her. If she left, how likely was it that she could manage to get to the exit and escape from wherever the hell she was at? What did they even want with her?  
  
She waited a moment before she found she didn’t have a choice.  
  
If she stayed, she’d stare at her reflection, wondering how her body had repaired weeks upon weeks of damage to her person.  
  
The door was opened slowly, her eyes drifting over the room.  
  
Nothing.  
  
She hurried to the other door, pressing an ear to it as she held her skirts with her other hand. Silence met her hearing. It didn’t seem like anyone was closeby. Maybe she could get away. Maybe this would be okay…  
  
Slipping through the next door, she found herself pausing again.  
  
Beautiful columns lined the hallways. Vines and greenery made up the hall as skylights illuminated the space. There were sconces on the walls, like a old school medieval palace rather than a home. The floor carpeting was more plush than she had imagined. Her feet sank into the carpeting, her eyes drifted along the hall.  
  
Left or right…  
  
To the left, she could see the sunlight illuminating the ground. Tapestries and doors were further down the hall, but they seemed at more of a distance and led to a door at the end of the hall. To the other direction, there were turns here and there. More hallways. But she could see more natural light.  
  
That was the direction she needed to go.  
  
Her hands wrapped around the skirts of the dress, lifting it up so she could continue running.  
  
One hallway and then another, always listening. She was always prepared to double back, always ready to find Enkidu or the other man they had been speaking to.  
  
Trying doors was dangerous.  
  
It was something that kept popping into mind as she saw the doors pass. She could try to open one or two of the doors, to see what was inside, but if there were others in this place, she didn’t want them to find her. She needed to be careful. She needed to get away from these people without hurting them.  
  
The sunlight poured down as she turned the corner, her body staggering back as pain lanced through her. Slamming against the wall, she nearly toppled an endtable over as she tried to catch her breath.  
  
The hell was that?  
  
She couldn’t breathe for a minute, merely hanging on to the barest of breaths as she stared at the sunlight.  
  
Reaching out a hand, she hissed as the sunlight hit it.  
  
She pulled back her hand and stared at the reddened skin.  
  
Erythropoietic protoporphyria?  
  
She had never had such harsh reactions to sunlight before. EPP was an inherited condition as well. It wasn’t something that popped up because of a nap. It didn’t make any sense at all.  
  
What the hell was happening to her?  
  
There was no doubting the rash that was across her finger and skin though. Even as she stared at it, she couldn’t deny the reddened spot. Yet, as she stared at it, the redness diminished, her skin returning to that smooth look.  
  
Once again, she was looking at flawless skin.  
  
The fact that her body was reacting and healing this quickly was signs of either madness or optical illusion. Which meant she needed to leave this place to remove the possibility that she was experiencing a third option: drugged hallucinations.  
  
Her hands were once more around the white fabrics around her legs, lifting them up once again as she booked it down the hallway. She took another few turns, looking around at any indication of exits.  
  
There had to be an exit somewhere.  
  
No one made a place without an exit.  
  
A large fountain came into view as she took another corner. Beyond the open area and the fountain, she could see a line of columned archways, presenting the sunlight and outside world. Glorious sunlight poured in from the area, the sounds of the city outside could be heard.  
  
She was free!  
  
Hakuno picked up the pace, running headlong for the open exit.  
  
There was no doubt that she wouldn’t be able to make it. She could see multiple exits, all beside one another. She could run and make it through to the other side. She could wander into the city and call for the police. Or she could call Jeanne to come and rescue her. Jeanne was probably waiting for her and the others to get back to her.  
  
Instead, Emiya lay…  
  
No, don’t think about that.  
  
She focused herself on the sunlight, on the world outside. She let the sun hit her skin, lifting her face up to the skies. The breeze was strong, pushing her back. The sunlight tore at her skin, painfully pushing her back towards the darkness.  
  
The air and excitement was gone, replaced with pain and anguish.  
  
She couldn’t move to the shade, it hurt so bad. She couldn’t scream because moving meant more pain.  
  
The cries of pain that escaped her were unavoidable. The pain was worsening with every second, her vision going red as the agony just continued to rise. Air was gone. Moving was an effort she couldn’t even fathom soon enough.  
  
And then, two arms reached around her body, pulling her back. She bit back the sound that came to her lips, stopping it as she felt her body cradled to another’s. Her face was pressed to their neck as voices spoke. She couldn’t hear what was all being said. There was too much pain.  
  
Her lips were so close to the other’s neck. She could feel a hand holding her close before something was said. Her face was pulled back a moment as she saw something glint before her face. The neck was now reddened and her face pressed against it again. The coppery smell filled her senses. Her eyes were glued to the color, mouth opening.  
  
Closing her eyes, Hakuno found herself doing something so dreadfully against health codes…  
  
She drank from the person, lapping at the blood as though that wasn’t the pathway to so many damn diseases. Her body and the unspeakable pain began to lessen. Her hair was being stroked as the voice of the person she was drinking from was meeting her ears. It was still unintelligible, probably because the pain of what had just happened was still raw in her mind.  
  
She could feel a cloth under her chin. The neck pulled away from her, a pair of garnet colored eyes looking down into hers. She could see the golden hair falling into his face a bit, his button up undone to a certain point so his neck was exposed.  
“Hakuno,” that voice called.  
  
Never in her life had she met this man.  
  
That was for sure. She had no idea who this was and she had just drank his blood and clung to him. Hakuno closed her eyes, wincing at the reminder.  
  
Her mouth was still a little dry as she tried to speak.  
  
“…I shouldn’t have done that.”  
  
“You were wounded.”  
  
“Wounded?” Hakuno stared at him a moment before holding up her arms, arms that had no doubt red- Her skin looked the same as it had before. There was no sign of any pains or stresses to her person. In fact, looking herself over more, she couldn’t see that she had been in any trouble.  
  
Blondie just leaned back on his knees, snickering a little. “Problem?”  
  
“I was just in pain.”  
  
“You were.”  
  
“And now I’m not.”  
  
He nodded, as though it was straightforward.  
  
Hallucinogens.  
  
They had to have given her hallucinogens. Something was messing with her senses, making her seek out odd items such as blood due to the iron and other qualities that made up it. She was seeing her skin being burned, but she was probably mentally bringing forth the condition, telling her own mind that she was in agony when nothing of the sort was-  
  
The man’s lips pressed against her own and she squeaked against him. Her hands were captured, held into place as she felt those lips just move. He had a way of doing this. She couldn’t imagine pulling away. She couldn’t think. There was just normal air one moment and the world that was his lips the next. Her eyes closed in response, her toes curling under her as the man moved his hands from hers to her face, cradling it close as he took his time about this.  
  
Over and over, he moved his lips, teasing and tormenting her.  
  
There was nothing else but this.  
  
She mewled pathetically, the sound seeming to echo in her ears. Her body warmed. Her mind reeled. She wasn’t even sure when her hands began to hold onto him, clinging to him.  
  
But he was beginning to move forward, forcing her back. Her hands moved to the floor, holding herself up. His hands tilted her head upwards, once more stealing her air and her senses. She wasn’t sure how, but she ended up against the floor, the skirts exposing her as those lips-  
  
“Hakuno.”  
  
His voice all but purred her name like some kind of sweet, drowning her in this strange situation. She could feel him between her legs, looming over her as those lips separated from her own. Those snake-like eyes just gleamed in amusement and intrigue.  
  
Sanity. She needed to act with sanity.  
  
The smallest gleam of sensibility bled through, making her tense beneath him. She closed her eyes on him, making sure to block him from her sight if only to be able to function.  
  
“Who are you and what am I doing here?”  
  
Two questions, important ones, made it out at that. Opening her eyes, she could see they had at least had a sobering effect. The man before her had taken a moment to breathe and think.  
  
Perhaps they were both caught up in some aftereffects.  
  
“You don’t remember me then? After all this time?”  
  
“I have no idea who you are,” she told him. She moved her hand out from beneath his, starting to worm away a bit only to find him resting his hand back onto hers. The other hand buried itself into her hair, keeping her looking at him. Those fingers massaged at her scalp.  
  
“Nothing at all?”  
  
“I think I’d remember if I had ever been kissed before,” Hakuno found herself saying.  
  
The amusement in those eyes only grew at that, his face getting closer. Moving backwards wasn’t an option. She couldn’t dodge the next kiss that was coming in, not with her hand trapped under his and his other hand holding her in place. Once more, those soft lips were against her own, that tongue asking for entrance in a way that had her body softening beneath him.  
  
Calling what he did kissing wasn’t fair to humanity.  
  
The man didn’t kiss, he consumed. Those lips stole away every flame of free thinking and rationale, opting to leave a spineless mass of nothing in his wake. He kissed as those he intended to steal away every bit of air from your lungs, until all you could think of was how his air was what was needed.  
  
She needed to kiss him back, her body seemed to decide on its own, her arms moving over his shoulders with his aid. She needed to feel him against her, her breasts against his chest as the white fabric rubbed against her skin. She was all softness and silk, her every inch becoming alive and sensitive. It made his touch send a shiver along her body, making her accept more of his touch.  
  
“You still respond the same,” he murmured.  
  
She opened her eyes, pulling away from his lips and shaking her head.  
  
But the man’s lips pressed to her neck and she found a whimper passing through her better judgement. Her body pressed to the floor.  
  
“I don’t know who you are…”  
  
“I’m patient,” the blond murmured. “You may not remember, but your body has not forgotten. It senses even my claim upon it, especially now.”  
  
“I don’t belong to anyone.” There were other words to say to that. She wasn’t something to own or possess. She was her own person, alone and strong enough to survive on her own in the world. She had been a big girl for a long-  
  
But those hands were moving along her body, a sound of amusement escaping the man. His lips stole hers again, almost condescending in the way that he kissed her. He kissed for reaction and her body reacted. Like a switch being turned on and off again, he controlled her senses without resistance. She trembled before such power. She kept her gaze on him, feeling him laughing as he kissed her.  
  
“Still the same little fool, but we don’t have much time to enjoy things right now. The others will have sensed what I have done with you. They saw what happened here in Uruk and they won’t be pleased. Patience is for humans.”  
  
His hands were running over her body too much. She couldn’t tell him off, finding her body being unwrapped from the dress now.  
  
“Enkidu must think themselves as funny or merely be trying to warn me with this,” he purred, pulling down on the white fabric. “So damn innocent, but since you seem genuine in your questions, I’ll humor you. I am, by your own words, the king of pleasure. I know every inch of this body like I know my own kingdom. I know every spot that makes your toes curl, every gentle slope and curve of these hips and those feet. I know how your eyes gloss over when I bring you to climax and I know how your body shakes and begs for me when I show you how I can please you.”  
  
The room was getting too hot under that gaze. A wetness was forming, despite her best attempts at thought. She could feel that shivering he spoke of, faltering under those eyes.  
  
It was the eyes. Without a doubt, it was his eyes that were her undoing. She could think when she didn’t see them, but they were mesmerizing, beguiling in their depth of color and emotion.  
  
“Nothing?” The man laughed again, those eyes drifting to her lips. She could feel the distance closing, dying off before her lips were back against his. His hands were moving over her, the air adding a chill that only those hands were able to combat. “Perhaps there was something to the words Enkidu gave when I changed them.”  
  
“Stop…”  
  
She had to fight it, whatever this was. She needed to stop it now.  
  
“Do you feel it?” That amused voice of his purred. That touch went beneath the skirts, to the warmth and wetness she already knew lay beneath the white fabric. “Do you feel what I do to you? Does it scare you, Hakuno? Not remembering and yet remembering me so well?”  
  
“I don’t know who you are, but let me go.”  
  
“And let you burn in the sunlight? You welcomed me in already, Hakuno. I’m here to stay,” those lips were at her ear, that voice echoing in her mind. “Or will you deny hearing my commands and remembering dying in my arms before?”  
  
She tried to stare passed him, towards the walls, but her senses just gave off warning signs.  
  
The room was filled with golden walls here. A throne sat off to the side. She could see the man’s blond hair in the edge of her senses, feel his lips moving along her neck.  
  
This…  
  
This room and this man…  
  
No, it was impossible.  
  
Her dream was only that: a dream. It was something that she had imagined and had merely been from poor memory of a bad movie or something. It had been something created from an overactive imagination. It wasn’t real.  
  
“Gilgamesh,” the man murmured. “Call my name when I touch and drink from you, Hakuno. I want to hear it from your lips.”  
  
Something pierced her neck, she could only close her eyes in response, the pain and pleasure searing through her senses. The name escaped her lips for no other reason. She needed to say something. She needed to get him to stop.  
  
It was sensory overload. Her eyes were rolling back at the touch.  
  
Those fingers were stroking at her center, making her hips move against him. She was not going to last at this rate. She wasn’t going to survive. Whatever he was doing, it was going to be the end of her.  
  
_Again,_ his voice in her head murmured. _Say it again._  
  
“Gilgamesh… Gil.” She choked on the nickname, finding herself just letting go for the moment.  
  
She was swept up in everything, unable to control herself. Her body seemed to find release, the world turning to white around her. She shook and cried out the name. Any strength she had seeped out, surrendering. There was no chance of escape, of finding anything at this point. All she could do was cling as she found him pulling back. A red color stained his lips a bit as he wiped his mouth.  
  
“Better,” he told her. “But with you awake, I should indulge for a bit.” Her body was lifted up, primed and putty in the hands of this so called king. She could no more argue than she could move at this time. Her head lulled to his chest, breathing coming in erratically.  
  
“What… did you do to me?”  
  
“You are unaccustomed to pleasure again. What it is about you being so simple and plain, I will never understand, but your body is just starting to wake up.”  
  
“I have never met you before in my life.”  
  
“You hadn’t, but you aren’t exactly alive now, are you?” That knowing smile was bothering her, his lips pressed to hers as they wandered through the halls. “Think of this as your wedding night, since we have guests coming.”  
  
Wedding-  
  
Hakuno shifted, the words going over like cold water. “I’m not married!”  
  
“You are now,” Gilgamesh purred. “A virgin as well, from what I felt. You have always been one for indulging my interests. I get to once more teach your body of pleasure and sin, since you have so wisely kept yourself saved for me.”  
  
“I… You can’t just-“  
  
She felt her body pressed onto one of the tables in one of the hallways, her thighs wrapped around his body as those lips stole hers away again. She held his robes tightly, trying to stop responding like this. She needed to stop responding like this.  
  
She didn’t know him. She didn’t know where she was.  
  
Despite how much chemistry they had physically, there was no way she was tossing her life and career into the distance for someone she didn’t know. She was not married.  
  
“Hakuno,” the man laughed, running his hand over hers, something sliding up her finger. When he had pulled that from his robes or whatever, she wouldn’t know, but she knew what it was without looking. It was what all married people tended to wear.  
“I’m not-“  
  
_Say ‘I love you.’_  
  
The command came to mind before she could finish her statement. Her body shook at the words. She could feel those eyes beginning to show concern.  
  
“Gil…”  
  
She couldn’t say that to someone she didn’t know. And she didn’t know a damn thing about this man other than he was damn good at touching her.  
  
Damn good.  
  
King of pleasure did him justice.  
  
“Hakuno…” He pulled her hands over his shoulders. The command echoed in her mind, but she closed her eyes, avoiding the eyes that would be her ruin.  
  
She leaned forward, against him.  
  
She breathed.  
  
“I will make you tell me it again,” he murmured. “Over and over, like you used to when you were my queen. There won’t be an end to this time, Hakuno, but you cannot meet the others in this state. Ramses will understand, but the other two will kill you if you show this resistance. We don’t allow our people to act this way. There is too much at stake and we don’t like playing around with the fear of our food source… at least not too deeply.”  
  
“I am not your queen,” Hakuno murmured.  
  
“Look at you,” he replied easily. “Do you not sense it? Your body knows mine. Loves mine. You may not remember everything, but you sense this allure between us, don’t you? You drank of my blood and I drank of yours. Our connection is entirely complete. You just have no knowledge of how to use this power I’ve given to you.”  
  
She shook her head.  
  
“Denial is not pretty on you, Hakuno. Do you not feel that spark when I touch you? Did you not climax in my arms?”  
  
“Sex is not a relationship,” Hakuno breathed.  
  
Those lips were against hers again, punishing in their affections. Her body was failing to resist now. She welcomed the touch and the sensory overload as it came.  
  
He carried her down the hall, opening the door and laying her out on the bed in the room once again. Her eyes drifted to the sitting area. She was back in the same room as before. Back to square one, but this time, the man knew where she was.  
  
Her dress was pulled down, Gil’s body climbing over her.  
  
“I’m not yours,” she told him, welcoming the first hints towards fatigue. She pulled the blankets around herself as he tugged off the dress, wrapping herself tight as she turned away from him.  
  
Rest, in all its splendor, claimed her; if only to allow the king to have no opportunity.


	3. Between Mind and Heart

“Gilgamesh, they’re here.”  
  
Hakuno felt a warmth against her stirring, something sliding along her waist as she slowly began to wake up. The body moving away from her climbed over her, making the bed dip slightly.  
  
“Ramses told me he’d be another day. Who the hell is here?”  
  
“It’s Nefertari’s fault. She was so excited about a converted human that she insisted that they leave immediately. She’s currently being held in Ozy’s arms and cooed to in the throne room while I get you. I don’t know how long he’ll be able to hold back on indulging her.”  
  
“He’s whipped,” Gil’s voice replied, growling the words.  
  
“Imagine that,” Enkidu replied, a hint of sarcasm strong in that tone.  
  
“I need more time with Hakuno. Let’s make them come back-“  
  
There was a silence, one that permeated the room before she heard a growl again from Gil’s direction.  
  
“I didn’t want to make Ozymandias a vampire to begin with anyway. This indulging him and his reincarnated wife thing is becoming old.” She could hear fabric being shook out. Footsteps headed towards the door. “I will speak to them, since they are being difficult. Something must be done about Hakuno in the meantime. If they sense that the bond is not complete between myself and her, they will insist on intervening. Or they will share the information with Vlad and Arthur. Talk to her or something. I want no hints shown of our current vulnerability…” Another pause before- “We have lost her once already. Let’s not do that again.”  
  
“I’ll see what I can do,” Enkidu replied.  
  
The door closed. A hand brushed back a little of her hair.  
  
Hakuno smacked at it, glaring up at the being standing over her.  
  
“What do you think of him?”  
  
“Get away from me.”  
  
Those lifeless eyes of theirs lit up a bit, glinting in amusement at her words. “He can have that affect on some people. I think we indulged him too much when we were all alive together. Between your spoiling him intimately and my spoiling him in court manners, we rounded him out to be a bit of an asshole. Society makes fools of us all.”  
  
“I mean, stay away from me… Both of you.” Hakuno moved deeper into the bed, heading for the other side. “I don’t know what you’ve done to me, but I’m clearly having problems with deficiencies in a half dozen different vitamins and possibly suffering from drugged side effects.”  
  
“Do you think so? I always wondered what a logical mind would think of being a vampire. This would be much simpler if you were religious, you’d already believe in odd things. The paranormal wouldn’t be so much of a leap.”  
  
“There’s nothing paranormal-“  
  
She found her words dying as the being before he lunged forward, stopping short with a set of fangs set and showing to their best light. Her body froze, fight or flight failing her as she just tensed.  
  
Enkidu didn’t move, remaining close.  
  
“I am a vampire.”  
  
“You’re a lunatic.”  
  
To her surprise, they laughed, running a tongue over those fangs before they settled for sitting on the bed. She didn’t dare move, lest the insane being decide to try to scare her or attack her. Who knew with crazy people. They were wholly unpredictable.  
  
“Let me ask you this, what would make you believe that I was a vampire?”  
  
“Vampires don’t exist. They’re a fictional creation of superstitious minds of various parts of the world that were used to explain away terrifying animals in nature. Very old writers took advantage of older tales in order to make a profit.”  
  
“But if they were real, what would convince you?”  
  
“Turn into a bat.”  
  
They stared at her, picking at their teeth slightly. “…You call me a lunatic and believe vampires turn into bats. Do you expect Gilgamesh and I to wear capes and go trick-or-treating as well?”  
  
“You asked what it would take for a Halloween store costume to be real. I told you what it would take.”  
  
“Bloodsucking?”  
  
It was her turn to cross her arms and be disappointed again. “We’re lucky I’m alive after doing that. Do you know blood can be toxic when ingested like that? There’s too much iron in blood. You’ll end up damaging your liver, building up fluid in the lungs, or doing a handful of other bad things to yourself by drinking blood like some Hollywood movie horror monster.”  
  
“So it’s bloodsucking that will do it for you?”  
  
“…You may have a low iron and oxygen count that allows you to handle a minute amount of blood on a routine basis.”  
  
“Maybe quick healing? I could stab myself…” Enkidu looked towards the weapons nearby, as though pondering the concept.  
  
“Fine.”  
  
“Truly?”  
  
The being stabbing themselves meant she would have the opportunity to run away again. She could escape the room and find a new path. She had probably slept for only a few hours, leaving time for the sun to set and for the night time to take over. Whatever was wrong with her, she could get away from this place and find a way to civilization. She could call Jeanne like she had planned originally and escape.  
  
“If I stab myself and heal quickly, will you listen to me for a few minutes and allow me to tell you about the situation? Will you agree to remain here for a while?”  
  
“I should be the one to stab you.”  
  
The smile that came to the other’s face was almost condescending. “A vampire doctor stabbing their fellow vampire? Isn’t that against an oath or something?”  
  
She almost felt bad about offering to stab them. Almost.  
  
But they had killed Emiya. They had brought her to this place and was keeping her here against her will. In light of that, she was more than happy to stab the being and escape in whatever way it would take. She’d stab Gilgamesh too, should they get in the way.  
  
“Hakuno, I will allow you to stab me, but I want your word that you will hear me out and remain here with us willingly for a few days.”  
  
“A week.”  
  
Enkidu nodded. “A week. I want you to at least allow Gilgamesh the opportunity to once more earn your good humor and affections again. He was… excited at the opportunity again.”  
  
He was a step over the edge of psychotic, calling her his wife and declaring them married. There was no way in hell she was going to be doing anything like that.  
  
“Fine,” she agreed.  
  
“You must vow it to me, I will not allow us to move forward until you do. Deals between vampires are considered law.”  
  
“Fine. I vow, as a vampire,” Enkidu nodded at her words, motioning her to continue. She rolled her eyes. “I vow I will remain for a week, listen to whatever you need to tell me, and try to get along with Gilgamesh. Although I won’t necessarily welcome him doing… that kind of thing with me just because he feels like it. I am no one’s toy.”  
  
“Of course you’re not. You mean much more than that.”  
  
They climbed to their feet, heading over to the wall not far from the bed. Pulling a dagger from the wall and returning to the bed, they held out their hand.  
  
Hakuno looked up at those eyes, seeing the calm in their expression. There was no fear, no doubt. They believed fully in what they were doing. They felt no insecurity, no doubts. It was just a necessary task to get things done.  
  
She looked at the dagger, laying her hand nervously into the being’s hands.  
  
“Remember to not hold back. I want you to feel that this method will prove my words.”  
  
“I could be drugged,” Hakuno offered.  
  
I’ll have you stick your hand in when you stab me. You know what the inside of a body feels like, don’t you?”  
  
“Are vampires the same as humans?”  
  
A smirk came to their face before the dagger was placed in her hand. Their wrapped her fingers around the handle, aiming it at that chest. A moment of hesitation had them pulling their robes open, letting her see their chest.  
  
The blade began to move.  
  
Something sparked into mind. A thought that grew like fire amongst oxygen, driving her into motion.  
  
She didn’t want to stab them. No matter what had been done, no matter who they had killed, it wasn’t worth taking a life like this. She didn’t want to be the one to cause the light to die out from those eyes. She couldn’t.  
  
But she couldn’t bring her hand back, she couldn’t stop them as they pushed the dagger in so deep she felt it leave the other side of them. The force that required- the effort they were putting in…  
  
She could feel their intestines and her eyes were the size of dinner plates.  
  
“…Enkidu…” Her eyes drifted up to that face, seeing the blood trickling from their lip as they coughed.  
  
God, what had she done?  
  
She was a doctor, a person who saved others.  
  
Her emotions and her fear had consumed her, making her do something so heinous… Maybe they deserved to die, but not by her hand. She didn’t need these memories, this regret for taking a life.  
  
Their hands released hers, moving to cup her cheeks. She could feel the blood on their hands. It was blood from that stab wound.  
  
Their forehead pressed to hers. Their lips pressing to her nose after a moment.  
  
“I won’t die,” they assured her. “Don’t make that look on my behalf, Hakuno. I won’t die from a stab wound. Gilgamesh and I tried this centuries ago, thinking you’d never come back to us. We tried far worse than this.”  
  
“I… I shouldn’t have…”  
  
“Shhhh,” Enkidu laughed a little, pulling her hands from their chest and placing them close. She looked down, seeing the wound beginning to close. The blood remained, but the wound itself…  
  
It disappeared within a minute, sealing over until only traces of blood showed where the dagger had pierced their body.  
  
Hakuno stared at their chest, running a hand over the expanse of skin.  
  
They had been bleeding. She had felt their insides. Her hands had been right beneath this skin, feeling his internal organs. No one and nothing healed that fast. Even stitching took a while and required a bandage to cover the skin so that infection wouldn’t occur.  
  
“I told you,” Enkidu pulled her a little closer. “We are vampires. Creatures of the night, from what the media describes of us, although as you’ve said, we’re considered nothing more than make believe.”  
  
“You’re… There’s no possible way for vampires to exist. The logistics of it doesn’t make any sense.” Hakuno looked up at their face, shaking her head. “Even in nature, the idea of blood sucking creatures have attributes that compensate for the high iron. I had a weird set of medical rounds for the holidays in the US that had me look into the idea of vampires. There should be a membrane or something structurally different and that wouldn’t let you heal quickly. The only animal I can think of that would heal like that is geckos when they lose their tails or something. Or maybe that’s snakes. I don’t know… I know there’s some animal that can grow part of their bodies back… but not anything. Human beings can’t do that…”  
  
“We are vampires,” Enkidu murmured, stroking her hair as she tried to function and think.  
  
It was impossible.  
  
“You believe me now, don’t you?”  
  
“I believe that we have both experienced something that defies logic… If we could figure out what is going on with that ability, we could save so many lives…” How many soldiers were dying out there in the world? How many humans were not being given the chance to-  
  
Wait.  
  
“I burned in the sunlight.”  
  
Enkidu’s expression turned solemn, eyes closing. “Gilgamesh motioned me away when that happened earlier. I’m sure it hurt greatly.”  
  
“So I can’t go in sunlight again?”  
  
“You can. We aren’t without options. You’ve seen me in the sunlight. You just will need to prepare for sunlight. Just like humans do when they apply sunscreen to their skin. We have our own special kind of sunscreen, far more powerful for blocking out the sun.”  
  
She nodded, unable to believe her own thinking at this point. She was actually considering the idea that she and Enkidu were vampires…  
  
Yet it made sense.  
  
If there were extraneous circumstances at play, then it would explain why the sun had affected her. It would explain why her skin was suddenly smooth and without any of the burns or scars she had possessed on her person from before. It would explain why sunlight suddenly was the equivalent of pain…  
  
But it meant that there was a greater power at work. It meant there were things beyond science and rationale.  
  
“Take it slow,” Enkidu advised her, stroking her hair softly. The sheets around her waist were pulled up a little, wrapped around her a little more. “…I have made a mess of us both in doing this persuasion. I should have thought this through. I was so eager… I don’t know who was more excited about your return, Gilgamesh or myself. Let me start a bath and get us both a change of clothes.”  
  
She nodded, watching them as they climbed to their feet and looked around, their lips turned up as they bounced on their feet a little.  
  
“Do you have preferences for soaps? I don’t know much about your interests anymore. I imagine they are as they were before, enjoying sweets and anything that pleased Gil, but I don’t know for sure. You didn’t allow him to touch you. It could be nerves or you could simply dislike him now.”  
  
“I don’t know him. I don’t like anyone I don’t know.”  
  
“I see.” Enkidu nodded, the relieved smile on their face lighting up the room a little. “I’ll prepare a bath and we can talk as we clean up. I imagine Gil will have his hands full with talking to Ozymandias and Nefertari. They’ve been really excited, ever since Ozymandias spoke to Nefertari about his change and about his finding solace in her passing with Gilgamesh’s own story of turning and achieving immortality.”  
  
“So Gilgamesh is the leader of them all?”  
  
“He’s… territory lead. He may have turned them all over time, but differences in opinion have created territories. They keep the population down and control those who are vampires. No one acts out of turn.”  
  
Enkidu held up a finger, smiling a little. “You’ll see in time. No need to give everything away. You agreed to a few days.”  
  
“But even if I leave, I’ll probably need to follow the rules.”  
  
“I’m hoping you don’t.” Enkidu shook their head. “I don’t know how well that’ll go over, considering how long we’ve been both waiting.”  
  
She wasn’t going to make promises. She still needed to talk to Jeanne. She had a life outside of these walls to get back to.  
  
But Enkidu moved to the bathroom, the sound of water being poured soon beginning before Enkidu returned. They didn’t even pause as they told her to stay put for a moment. They headed out of the room, into the hallways and leaving her to look around.  
  
Her eyes drifted around the room as she pressed her hands together.  
  
The ring from before was still on her finger.  
  
The red stones and gold band stood out against her pale skin. Her body shuddered. Gilgamesh hadn’t asked her anything about what she thought about the matter. He hadn’t tried to explain or anything. Instead he had tagged and bagged her, tossing her into his bed and doing what he wanted with her. She was lucky he hadn’t wanted to simply take his own pleasure.  
  
She slipped the ring off, setting it on the nightstand.  
  
While she’d provide him an opportunity as she had vowed to Enkidu, she wouldn’t bother with wearing something that marked her as his property. After all, that was all he thought of her. There was no use in her thoughts or accomplishments. All he had been interested in was emotion and bodily actions. Like some kind of lovestruck teenager, he’d been oblivious to anything she was capable of as a person.  
  
Of course, a vampire with hundreds to thousands of years of life would probably be more interested in feeling alive than intellectual interests. He’d probably heard it all before.  
  
What a boring way to live in general.  
  
“Hakuno?”  
  
She turned her gaze away from the ring on the nightstand, finding Enkidu waiting nearby with fabrics over one arm.  
  
“Are you ready?”  
  
“Yeah. I was just thinking.” She moved to stand, keeping the sheets around her body as she followed after the being into the other room. The bath was still filling, but Enkidu began to pour in some oils from a bottle, setting it aside after a moment and allowing her to read it.  
  
Nothing more than aroma therapy oils, typical store stuff.  
  
They climbed out of their clothes, climbing in and glancing over at her.  
  
“You want to bathe together?”  
  
“Are you shy about your body?”  
  
She had never had taken a bath with someone before. Raised with a quiet family that both parents had passed when she had gotten into med school, she had never really experienced siblings or anything like that. Studies had been more important than relationships. Along with that, everyone had seemed…  
  
Pathetic.  
  
Wandering out to pools or anything like that had taken up too much time to indulge in. There wasn’t enough time to enjoy those kinds of things.  
  
She was peeling off the sheet though, climbing into the bath despite her better sense.  
  
She had stabbed him.  
  
Enkidu was also polite enough to turn away, letting her setting under the bubbles and against the side of the tub. Her head rested against the rim.  
  
“Not bad, huh Doctor?”  
  
“It feels nice.”  
  
Enkidu just beamed, moving a bit closer to her side and leaning back as well. “Since you’re all relaxed and not trying to think of how best to kill me and book it for an exit, this is probably a good time for an explanation, isn’t it?”  
  
“I thought I’d heard you out.”  
  
“Well, yes and no. You know that Gilgamesh is interested and that we have other individuals who are very adamant on keeping vampire population under control, but you don’t know how we became vampires, do you?”  
  
“I don’t. I don’t understand why you’d bother.”  
  
“Truthfully, I am made of clay. Death had no true claim for the most part, but the gods went against me and Gilgamesh found he had no choice. He turned me before I began to rot in his arms and then we may have… we started a revolution. The citizens eagerly welcomed the change, but the sunlight…” They being shivered, “let’s just say the old Uruk had a lot more sunlight than this one. The climate changes have been beneficial in providing more cloud coverage and foul weather.”  
  
“People aren’t made of clay.”  
  
“I am.”  
  
“Then how are you a vampire?”  
  
“It’s kind of strange…” Enkidu shrugged. “I don’t know how to explain, but I don’t work properly as a vampire. Gilgamesh’s blood was how I managed to make you a vampire. My blood wasn’t working for the process.”  
  
“Do you mind if I take a blood sample from you?”  
  
The being laughed, nodding. “Sure. I don’t mind.”  
  
“Maybe a hair and skin sample as well. If you’re clay, that may mean you have a different set of strengths when it comes to avoiding illness. It could be helpful for those that are suffering from different-“  
  
“I wouldn’t worry about that right now.” Enkidu pressed a hand to her shoulder. “Right now, Gil needs you and our people have an illness that I need you to investigate.”  
  
“What do you mean?”  
  
Enkidu leaned a little closer. “Gil was going to be patient. We weren’t going to have citizens play dead like they did unless an emergency came up, but-“  
  
“Wait… Play dead?”  
  
“The ones within Uruk were mostly playing dead. We’ve had only a few dead bodies.”  
  
“The body yesterday-“  
  
“She was dead. The illness that has been running through the area had gotten to them. I don’t know what it is, but they just die. Quick and painfully. We lost Siduri that way and Gil’s been… different, since the loss. Siduri kept the two of us in line when we were looking into our limits.”  
  
“It would be easier to investigate with my fellow doctors alive.”  
  
The being shook their head, “I could see where things would lead. I saw the way that Doctor Emiya looked at you when your back was turned. He would have created trouble. The other two were quite… psychotic. I imagine their illegal trades will soon be found out without their checking up on the illegal labs.”  
  
What the hell?  
  
“How do you know anything about them? You hired us all a week ago.”  
  
“I did, but Gil and I kept tabs on you. It took a while to find you, but we could feel you out there. It’s what woke us up a little over twenty years ago.”  
  
She was a little over twenty…  
  
She grabbed one of the bottles from nearby, beginning to wash her hair. The distraction was needed for at least a little while.  
  
“The disease seems to come on without symptoms,” Enkidu offered, moving in closer still. Those lifeless eyes looked up at her. “They begin with a nosebleed. Then it becomes bloodshot eyes. They go to bed or lay down somewhere. They’re tired. Then you hear them scream and die. It is a painful death. We burned bodies at first, unsure of the cause, but there’s nothing in common between the vampires that get hurt by the disease.”  
  
“Nothing? No shared water source? No similar area? No same laundry detergent or place they go?”  
  
“Siduri stayed in the ziggurat here. The woman you met yesterday was a border guard. Others were doctors or teachers or just children. There’s nothing in common.”  
  
“Any new foods? New products in the city?”  
  
“We closed the city for a week. There’s still new cases being found.”  
  
Which meant little. They could have welcomed something foreign in that was taking lives. It would be dangerous for her still to investigate.  
  
That was the calling of a doctor in her area of expertise. Diseases and plagues could claim her, but she had a duty to help those in need. The vampires, although not human, were still living and breathing beings. She’d collect samples and investigate how to resolve the issue.  
  
Hell, maybe the research would mean that she could find if Enkidu held properties that would save others. Perhaps they were the walking cure this whole time to this vampire disease.  
  
“You’re already planning, I see.”  
  
“At the end of the day, all I want to do is help people. Even if you did things I won’t necessarily forgive, I can’t ignore that there are people that need help here. I’ll do whatever I can to help.”  
  
“You used to say you wanted to help people before…”  
  
The references to the past were getting annoying to hear. She didn’t know anything about whoever they had known before.  
  
“I’m not anyone else but me,” Hakuno told the being, beginning to rinse her hair out. “Don’t think of me as someone that’s going to stay. I’m just here to resolve the disease going on here and go home. I need a phone too. My friend is going to begin getting worried if I don’t call her.”  
  
“Uruk is a quarantine zone.”  
  
“And your so called boss assured us all that we’d have communication abilities. Jeanne is going to be worried about me and will call other groups to investigate if I don’t call in.”  
  
Enkidu groaned. “I hate humans.”  
  
“Well, I’m not too fond of vampires right now.”  
  
They just gave her a look at that, making her laugh a little despite her better sense.  
  
“Hello?”  
  
Enkidu’s head turned, eyes closing as they took in the person knocking on the door and calling out to them both. “You got away from your husband and Gilgamesh, Nefertari?”  
  
“I wanted to see Hakuno. I have heard so many stories…”  
  
Hakuno turned, looking over at the young woman in the doorway. Her sun kissed skin was almost laughable when compared to the idea of vampires. Then again, they were in a region of the world where the sun was out a lot longer than not.  
  
Enkidu leaned in close, murmuring quietly. “We can talk later. Please do not discuss our topics before then.”  
  
She nodded, finding the being moving from the waters and wrapping themselves quickly. Their head nodded as they wrapped their long hair.  
  
“Please bear in mind that our little queen is newly turned, Nefertari. She needs time to adapt to the changes and reacquaint herself with this place. We demanded that everyone keep a distance for that reason.”  
  
“Yes, Enkidu.”  
  
The woman bowed her head and Enkidu looked back at her.  
  
“Hakuno,” Enkidu stated loud enough for her to hear. “I will be in the other room playing games until you are done. Please feel free to have Nefertari retrieve me or simply call out to me when you are done. I would like to spend more time settling human arrangements.”  
  
What did that even mean?  
  
“Alright.” She was going to ask for food before he got to those human things.  
  
The door closed and Hakuno found herself facing the young female alone.  
  
A pair of fangs showed from her smile as she hurried over and settled on the outside of the tub.  
  
“It’s a pleasure to finally meet the person who loves Gilgamesh more than her own life.”


	4. The Die Is Cast

It’s a pleasure to finally meet the person who loves Gilgamesh more than her own life.  
  
The hell was she talking about?  
  
Nefertari was looking around the room though, completely oblivious to whatever open look she no doubt had on her face. The woman was smiling, playing with the tassels on her dress.  
  
“I wondered, ever since I found Ramses and Moses, who was this Hakuno. No one was allowed to even say your name in front of Gilgamesh. He got so upset whenever it was spoken. He scares me, honestly.” She looked over and grinned sheepishly. “I know Ramses and Moses would both protect me, but there is something dark that comes over the king of yours that scares me. Maybe he’s just protective like my Ramses.”  
  
“I-“ She paused, seeing Enkidu peeking in through the doorway. The warning look from them was an obvious enough sign.  
  
Say something, there’d be hell to pay.  
  
She had a feeling that things wouldn’t work out too well for the woman calmly playing with her dress and smiling either.  
  
Better to just go along with things for now. She’d be hellfire later, when things were more in her favor and she understood what was going on better. Apparently, she was a vampire… or the others were.  
  
Jeez, what a weird situation she was in.  
  
“Nefertari, I don’t think I’m the best company to talk right now. If you remember what Enkidu said, I need time to-“  
  
“You must feel something!” Nefertari turned around, those rose colored eyes on her. “I felt it with Ramses. He looked directly at me and I felt like everything just came to place. He was so excited too. It was like walking straight into the loving arms of home and just-“ She rested her chin on the tub, sighing a little. “I was hoping you could say you felt something.”  
  
Oh she had felt something.  
  
There was no doubt about that.  
  
“I can’t say I didn’t feel something,” Hakuno told her before she could get the better of herself.  
  
“You did?”  
  
Oh god, she wanted to know what she felt. She was a bad liar too. Crap.  
  
“Gilgamesh was… forward.” He’d been a damn asshole about things, kissing her and then claiming they were married. She wasn’t sure where she was. She didn’t know what all they had planned for her. All she knew was that she was trapped in this place until she figured out how to escape and then she was exposing whatever twisted plot around Uruk to the police in the nearest city. There were people to save and she was busy being trapped here.  
  
“Ramses was the same way. He was trying to be all calm when he and Gilgamesh visited my flower shop right at closing, but then Ramses just decided to let himself go ahead with being forward.” She blushed, leaning back a little. “I appreciated it. I was scared of his friend, but the moment he kissed me, I know I liked him. I was scared of how much I liked Ramses and was worried his friend was up to no good. Instead, Gilgamesh helped me be with Ramses.”  
  
She was one of those overly romantic sorts.  
  
Hakuno sighed, shaking her head.  
  
The woman wouldn’t be much help-  
  
Or actually…  
  
“Nefertari,” Hakuno looked over at the woman, slowly moving to get up and climb out of the tub. She wrapped a towel around herself as the woman hummed.  
  
“Yes, Hakuno?”  
  
“Why don’t we get something to eat and wander somewhere else to talk? I don’t think the bathroom is the best place to talk. It’s a bit… intimate.”  
  
“I know a lovely little sitting area near the front of the palace we could settle in for talking!” Nefertari beamed at her, climbing to her feet. “Actually, it’ll be really nice to have some tea and food as well. Ramses and I hurried straight here from Cairo.”  
  
“That would be great.”  
  
A knock at the door, Enkidu was sticking their head in. “What is this about food?”  
  
“Lady Hakuno and I are going to indulge in some food and drink. Can you please get something for Hakuno? I think she must have forgotten to bring some clothes in here for herself!” She was laughing a little, but Enkidu didn’t seem pleased with the idea.  
  
Probably because it meant she was wandering away from them and their precious Gilgamesh. Hakuno waited, finding the green haired being returning with a set of clothes. She took them with a smile, finding the being grabbing her hand as she went to begin changing.  
  
“You forgot your ring,” Enkidu told her, the gold band from before being slipped carefully onto her finger. “Let’s not forget that now, right, Hakuno? There are those that are still not accustomed to your presence in the palace.”  
  
Was that a threat?  
  
Hakuno found herself fidgeting with the ring as she got dressed, watching the being lean against the wall and talk to Nefertari.  
  
Such a happy woman.  
  
Nefertari was so comfortable with the being. She laughed and nodded at something the being was talking about, talking about traveling here from Cairo. She joked about someone named Moses again, talking about how she had wanted to hurry here and Moses had been worried about the Quarantine Zone and the media seeing a business man and his wife wandering here.  
  
“The Zoning has been a problem, but we needed it,” Enkidu replied. “Our Hakuno became a very well popularized doctor’s assistant. It was necessary to bring her here through a sensible reason. Doctors don’t simply take vacations. Gilgamesh and her reuniting in the beaches or anywhere like that would be questionable.”  
  
“I understand. It must have been very difficult to think of a good way to meet. Doctors spend so much time in labs and in hospitals. The hospitals would have been worried sick about you two waltzing in and stealing away a good doctor like Hakuno probably is.”  
  
A doctor would have taken one look at these two and sent them straight to a mental ward. There wouldn’t have been any of this poor Enkidu, poor Gilgamesh nonsense.  
  
She really needed to get out of this place.  
  
Nefertari looked her way, frowning. “Are you having trouble?”  
  
“I um…”  
  
She couldn’t get the dress to sit properly on her person.  
  
“There’s a zipper. Here,” Enkidu moved forward, one hand going to her waist as they slowly zipped the white dress into place. Another white dress. Why did it feel like she was being served up by these two vamps and their friends? She almost wanted to drag Nefertari to safety. The woman needed distance and someone to stand up and call out all the bullshit of this situation.  
  
The being pulled back and took her hands into their own, grinning a little.  
  
“There we are. Feels better now, doesn’t it?”  
  
“I think I really just need time for a girl talk, don’t I, Nefertari?” Hakuno released the being’s hands, wrapping her hand around the woman’s only to see the smile coming to the woman’s face more.  
  
“Of course. You don’t mind, do you, Enkidu?”  
  
“I’ll be working on things until you both are done talking.”  
  
Nefertari was the one pulling her along. Bless the woman.  
  
Hakuno looked around as they meandered the hallways. First opportunity that came up, she was taking off the ring and getting out of this place. Her hands wrapped around the skirts of her dress as they hurried along. More hallways, more beautiful paintings and things.  
  
“Nefertari,” Hakuno paused near the entrance, “I think I sense Gilgamesh. Do you mind giving me a moment?”  
  
“Hmm?” The woman looked around. “That’s odd. I should sense Ramses then.”  
  
“Maybe he just missed seeing me?”  
  
The woman nodded, a spark coming to those eyes at the thought.  
  
A hopeless romantic for sure.  
  
“I’ll get settled in and you can see what he needs. Maybe invite him and Ramses to join us. It’s been a long time and I would hate to make the two of you be separated as long as you already have… Although you and Enkidu don’t seem to get along like before.”  
  
That’s because Enkidu is a vampire who can walk in daylight and not die even when stabbed.  
  
And she was too cowardly to stab him herself and not immediately regret it.  
  
“I’m just nervous,” she told the woman, earning a nod before the sitting room door closed.  
  
And finally, finally she had the chance to leave.  
  
Hakuno looked out, blessing the world for turning away from the damn sunlight. Now was the perfect time to get out of this place. She pulled the ring off her finger, tossing it into a nearby pot before she was through the doors. Her body pressed against the wall outside the entrance, waiting.  
  
She listened to the wind and to the world below.  
  
A few cars were roaming the streets, people living their lives within the Quarantine Zone that was Uruk. They were completely oblivious to the outside world and the chaos that they thought was happening here. Whatever they thought, they were no doubt involved in this whole scheme with the ziggurat.  
  
She needed to leave.  
  
It took a minute to get a handle on how to run down dozens of stairs and not lose her balance looking back. For that matter, she was now officially hating dresses. There was no good way to run down stairs with a long ass dress on without holding it. And then holding dress skirts meant that she had one less hand for balancing and keeping herself prepared to smack at anything that came along.  
  
The ziggurat was so tall as well. Why they needed a big, gaudy pyramid of all things in the middle of the city was beyond reason. They couldn’t simply invent an elevator to place in the damn thing. Or maybe a gondola, to gently bring them up to the doors from the bottom of the ziggurat.  
  
That would be sensible though. These people were not sensible.  
  
They were vampires.  
  
Or she was in a drug induced state where she was highly susceptible to influence and was being very well-  
  
No, even as she tried to argue that again, her mind shut down the idea.  
  
Myths were taught as being fearful tales that had roots in truth. Despite witches not being real, bacteria and other sicknesses happened upon people through interactions and close contact. Curses had roots in genetic diseases.  
  
For the moment, she needed to face the reality. Vampires were real.  
  
How to scientifically explain their existence…  
  
Well, she’d get to that later. Apparently, she was one.  
  
A more perfect specimen could not have cropped up.  
  
The bottom of the stairs were right there. Her feet pressed against the ground and she felt a weight leave her shoulders. Bless the world, she was safe. Finally, she could leave. Her feet were moving one before the other, hurrying her along the streets and into the nearest bar. She didn’t stop, merely giving a wave to the bartender before she was hurrying to the phones.  
  
She paused a moment, staring at the payphone and cursing mentally.  
  
“Here,” a person offered. “I don’t want to call my ride anyway. Call if you need to or pass on the good deed to someone else.”  
  
“Ah,” she couldn’t believe it.  
  
“Uruk is about good deeds. They’re rewarded by our king.” The person nodded at her. “Did you get lost, miss?”  
  
“I-I did. I’ll call my friends up right now though. Thank you.”  
  
The person nodded, melding into the group in the other room.  
  
Bless not needing to find money. She didn’t pause as she tossed the coinage in and listened. The line rang for several moments, the seconds ticking like hours as she kept an eye on the door. Although she was safe, there was still a chance…  
  
“Hello?”  
  
“Jeanne!”  
  
“Hakuno!” the woman on the other end of the line gasped. “What on Earth! I thought you’d died! I told you all to call-“  
  
“I don’t have time, Jeanne, I need you to get a team and come find me. I’m stuck in Uruk!”  
  
“I hear music in the background. Uruk’s a ghosttown for the most part. You couldn't have worked that fast at refilling the city with people.”  
  
“It’s not!” The door was opening. Hakuno could see golden hair as the other room was quietening down. A pair of red eyes were looking over at her. They had figured out she’d left. There was no safety.  
  
“Hakuno? Hakuno, can you hear me?”  
  
“I don’t have time… I don’t have time, Jeanne.” Hakuno held the phone tighter, moving a little more behind the phone. Her hands were shaking a little. She pressed them to the wall and phone. “I need you to get a team. It’s nothing like we imagined. Emiya’s gone. So are Jekyll and Hyde.”  
  
“What do you mean? Hakuno?”  
  
The phone went out. She could hear the request for more money being rattled out in an automated voice and she cursed, slamming the phone back down onto the receiver.  
  
She was screwed.  
  
The blond was heading her way. Gilgamesh’s eyes fixed on her as he waved the people in the room back to their merriment. She moved closer to the wall. She’d attack him if-  
  
“Do you need more quarters?”  
  
“Hmm?”  
  
Gilgamesh glanced at the phone. “I would have gladly handed you a phone if you had asked for one. If you insist on using this pathetic excuse of a device, then I would have gladly provided the funds for it. Instead I assume someone here provided funding.”  
  
“…They did.”  
  
He reached into his pocket, pulling out coins and depositing them into the phone. Handing her the receiver, he moved a chair over and settled down.  
  
“…I already said what I needed to.”  
  
“I heard you. You said you have no time. I am providing you time. Explain what you need to to the person on the other end of the line. I’m sure they’re concerned by your panic.”  
  
“…I have nothing to say in front of you.”  
  
“I’ll wait then.”  
  
The money was already in the machine. She was already holding the phone. She hesitated a moment.  
  
Her fingers moved along the keypad, hoping she was remembering the number correctly. She’d had to call it too many times from the lab. Normally for apologizing and offering new ideas for get togethers.  
  
“Hello,” a loud, very tired voice supplied.  
  
“Nero, it’s me.”  
  
“Hakuno?” The shuffling around the room on the other end of the line could be heard as she was no doubt looking outside her window. Always expecting her there. She almost felt bad.  
  
“Nero, I just wanted to call and ask if you could contact Jeanne for me.” Hakuno held the phone a little closer. “I don’t think she believed when I asked her for help on this project.”  
  
“I’ll do it! Not to worry.” Nero’s voice was closer to the phone. “I didn’t think you were still working on the project. Actually, I was thinking you had gotten sidetracked. The media has been showing a lot of you. Emiya and the others put in their resignation and things have been wild at the organization.”  
  
“They… what?”  
  
“You surprised all of us with what you’ve been doing.” Nero’s voice was so soft now. “It’s okay. I understand though. You were always so shy about intimacy. I can easily see you wandering off to make late night phone calls to me instead of spending time with that golden haired billionaire. If you need to come home-“  
  
“Nero, what are you talking about?”  
  
“There’s news out there from the Babylon organization. Apparently the CEO met with your team outside Uruk. You found that the cause was a virus and you all found a vaccine. You’ve been spending time with them according to a couple of chairmen.”  
  
“I-“  
  
She had been spending time, but not out of any voluntary sense. Her eyes drifted over to the golden haired man nearby, watching him be offered a glass of wine as the others in the room were in a ruckus of celebration.  
  
“Nero, listen. Can you please go talk to Jeanne. Tell her to remember what I said when I called. It’s not at all what it looks like here.”  
  
“I imagine not. You found a vaccine for a disease that was making people look dead. That’s very impressive.”  
  
“Nero-“  
  
“Ah- Bathory is here. She must have gotten kicked from her club again. Poor thing. I’m going to let you go.”  
  
“Nero!”  
  
She was hanging up though. Damn it all. Hakuno slammed the phone back on the receiver, looking back over at the man near her.  
  
“You dropped this,” he told her, holding up the damned ring from before.  
  
“I am not married to you.”  
  
“You aren’t in this time, but in another, you are well and truly claimed.” Gilgamesh simply sipped at his drink, “lying to Nefertari will have consequences though. She is… important to my associate. If you would like to try these games with Enkidu and myself, I am more than happy to court you and argue, but you will not do this to Nefertari.”  
  
The look he gave said there was no room for argument.  
  
“I am stuck here.”  
  
“You are not.”  
  
“Then when do I get to leave? Why does everyone think that Emiya is alive and that everything is fine?” Hakuno motioned at the phone. “Why does my ex-girlfriend think that I am seeing you and that I’ve created some vaccine for your city?”  
  
“Did that already get released? I know I told Vlad and Arthur to release the news, but they made quick work of it.”  
  
He thought this was funny. He was actually amused by this!  
  
She didn’t need to argue. He had said she was not stuck here so she was going to leave.  
  
“Goodbye then. Thank you for the phone call and the clothes.”  
  
It should have been like that. She would head out the door and head to the outskirts of town. She’d nap in the guard station and then on the next day, she’d find a bus or something that would take her to the next city. She’d be home within a few days, to her cozy little cubicle of a home. She’d water her cactus and she would watch the birds sit on her fire escape looking out at a beautiful view of a dumpster and a brick wall.  
  
Classic view.  
  
Even more typical a smell when she opened her small window.  
  
Her body seemed to pause though. She didn’t make a single step towards the door after that first one. Instead, she was seeing a set of golden walls. She was feeling her hand being held back by the golden king behind her.  
  
_She was looking back at him and wondering if he could be any more of an idiot. Denying Ishtar, telling the woman in so many ways why she was a useless goddess who basically used men as sponges to further her own personal interests. The king had understood what he was doing, understood that he was challenging the gods themselves and he had found it funny. He had thought that he could take them all on and there wouldn’t be consequences._  
  
_Yet he sat there in his royal crimson robes and his bright jewelry. He sat there as though he had the world, simply by having her and Enkidu at his side. There was nothing in his mind that he needed with the two of them there. There was nothing that was worth dying for now that he held the world in his hands and the promise of an heir was getting closer…_  
  
_But there was a sick feeling in her chest. There was something wrong with her and she couldn’t put her finger on what it was. Enkidu was looking a little pale as well._  
  
_“I won’t let anything happen,” the king had told her._  
  
“You’re such a fool, Gil. Ishtar will come after us.”  
  
The blond was dressed in modern attire again. His hand was holding hers, his eyes widening a little as they stood once more in the bar.  
  
“…Hakuno…”  
  
She pulled her hand from his, pressing a hand to her head. The pain was back. What had just happened? Why had she seen him in that kind of attire? She didn’t know what to-  
  
His body was wrapping around her, head being tilted back before those lips were pressing against her own. And she was welcoming the attention. She wasn’t sure why she was accepting that contact, but there it was. She was clinging to him, her mouth seeking answers against the king’s own.  
  
King…  
  
Where had that really come from? He was just a monster…  
  
“It’s still too early for you,” Gilgamesh murmured, pulling back to lean his forehead to hers. “…It’s a damn shame. Still a mongrel… Come back to the palace with me.”  
  
“No…”  
  
“I would like for you to come back to the palace with me, if only to remember on your own.” He held up the ring. “Allow me a week, since you have made the agreement with Enkidu to remain for that time. I will allow you your space, if only for you to remember on your own. I want to see what you do when you remember me and everything else.”  
  
“Who is Ishtar?”  
  
His eyes darkened a little, the room going a little cold at that look.  
  
“You… You told her no… I remember you insulting her and it brought trouble.”  
  
“It won’t this time. The gods can’t touch what we are.” He looked smug about that fact. Gods couldn’t touch vampires. Probably because they had abandoned the gods, if she knew anything from cult movies and old black and white films. They were killed by garlic and sunlight.  
  
She wasn’t sure of anything about this. The memory was so fresh in her mind though. It made no sense for her to imagine something like that. Seeing things like that was something she had only heard about from patients suffering from memory issues. The whole past life nonsense was just that.  
  
Of course, vampires were nonsense too.  
  
Damn it all.  
  
Gilgamesh was slipping the ring into his pocket, pressing her hand to his lips and watching her so carefully with those eyes. There was an unreadable look to them, a charge that had the hair on the back of her neck on end.  
  
“Stay with me for a little while,” he murmured. “You may make your phone calls. You may look into our vampirism. Anything that you wish to do. Just stay with me a little while. Remember at your pace.”  
  
She shouldn’t stay with him.  
  
God dammit, she didn’t need to trust him. Everyone in the world thought so many things wrong about this place and the situation. There was still something going on here. She wasn’t liking the situation at all. Enkidu had said something was wrong here too. Something was happening.  
  
“Hakuno…”  
  
“I’ll stay a week,” she relented. “I need to apologize for Nefertari. However,” she looked up at him. “I want a lab in the ziggurat and I want samples from you and Enkidu.”  
  
“Samples?”  
  
“Enkidu said you were a vampire.” Hakuno looked up at him seriously. “I don’t do Stockholm Syndrome and I don’t put up with being told what to do. If I’m staying here, then I’m staying here because I have a reason to stay. I’m going to figure out why the sunlight hurts my skin and I’m going to find out what exactly is going on with you and Enkidu.”  
  
The smirk coming to the man’s face was unmistakable.  
  
“I don’t really care if you think I was your old queen or whatever you think. I’m here as a guest and a guest only.”  
  
“I will allow you to stay and experiment as you please,” he purred. “You are not going to be treated as a simple guest in my palace, woman. You are the queen of this place even if you cannot wrap your mind around it yet. There will be an excuse needed to explain why you left poor Nefertari waiting.”  
  
“I didn’t want to do anything mean to her.”  
  
“You’ll need a good reason,” Gilgamesh countered. “She won’t accept simply being left behind so you could make phone calls…”  
  
He was right.  
  
Before she could say anything, she felt his mouth at her neck. Teeth bit down, her legs gave out a little as pleasure wracked through her body. She was shaking a little at the feeling. He was biting and moving his hands over her person.  
  
“G-Gil,” she tried to say his name, but it wasn’t coming out quite right.  
  
“I think I can provide an alibi for you, my queen,” he purred. Those red eyes were almost hypnotizing. “You were just so taken by your forward king. Oh yes, Enkidu told me what you said. I am abrasive, but you like that, don’t you?”  
  
Shit, she was enjoying this. She was enjoying his attention. Her legs gave in, his hands stroking along her body through the dress.  
  
He carried her from the building, not minding the looks or anything they were getting. She was still feeling hot as they were going up the stairs. Enkidu’s hair flowed in the wind lightly as they stood next to a tanned brunet.  
  
“King of Heroes?”  
  
“Hakuno and I got caught up in things.” Gilgamesh was almost laughing as he said it, smirking at the brunet. “I’m sure you’ve had Nefertari do the same.”  
  
“He has,” Nefertari offered from behind him, laughing softly. “I should have guessed. She was so quiet. We’re intruding on personal time they have together.”  
  
“Nefertari-“  
  
“It’s fine, Ramses,” she told the man. “We were the same way. Remember how mad these two got when you vanished for months on end? Let’s get some rest. The sun is going to be rising soon. They need time and I got excited.”  
  
“I will come and talk with you at nightfall, Ozymandias,” Gilgamesh promised.  
  
The man nodded, seeming off about the situation.  
  
“Hakuno-“  
  
She didn’t even question it. Cursing a little internally, she pressed her hand to the back of Gilgamesh’s neck, pulling his lips down to her own.  
  
This was freedom from getting in trouble with the man over leaving Nefertari. She would apologize to Nefertari at nightfall but…  
  
If this meant they would be good with one another and she’d forgive her for running off to call for help then it was fine.  
  
She’d kiss the asshole that had brought her here.


	5. Je T'aime Till My Dying Day

The two guests were heading for their own room, Enkidu being more than happy to direct them towards where they needed to go.  
  
Which left her in the arms of the blond asshole. Her eyes drifted up to Gilgamesh’s gaze, turning away after a moment.  
  
“You truly don’t like me, do you?”  
  
“Just don’t forget to direct me to a lab setting when we get to nightfall.” She’d begin with analyzing blood samples. Analyzing the rate of healing with herself and Enkidu would also be helpful, but she would wait until she got the blood analysis from her first tests before beginning to look at the other data that was open for measuring.  
  
“We have guests, woman. We have an obligation to entertain.”  
  
“They’re your guests.” Hakuno pushed herself from the man’s hands, standing up. “I’ll apologize to Nefertari and spend a couple hours talking to her because she needs someone normal to talk to and I really didn’t mean to necessarily hurt her feelings. I just needed to call my friends and Enkidu is about as helpful as a broken arm.”  
  
“Oh are they?” Those eyes were narrowing, the blond stalking forward. He went for height impact. She knew it was a power play. She knew he was trying to make her cower. Still, she felt herself flinch a little as he came in close, towering over her. “And here I had seen nothing but intolerance on your part. You were asked to come here and your friends come rampaging towards you and Enkidu. You trusted them without any evidence of foul play, ending up dying on the ground outside of Uruk. Enkidu saves you and the first thing you attempt is to run away. And then you do so again after making an agreement to remain here for a week, tricking poor Nefertari.”  
  
“Don’t twist this around! You and Enkidu weren’t honest to begin with! You come onto me without a single explanation,” She glared right up at him, scowling right back at him. “Enkidu slaughtered the three doctors I was with without hesitation. They brought me here and didn’t simply say ‘hey, you’re a vampire. We had to save you and we’re sorry that this happened. Do you want to call someone to let them know that you’re okay?’ Instead I get some video game horror with running around to escape and being dragged back into the depths of the pyramids.”  
  
“It’s a ziggurat, not a pyramid.”  
  
“It’s a triangle building. It’s a pyramid.”  
  
“Pyramids have flat sides.”  
  
“Yours has a few extras then. You seem to enjoy being extra.”  
  
“I live in a ziggurat. We live in a ziggurat.”  
  
“You live in a pyramid. I live in a tiny apartment in the city.”  
  
“You don’t now.”  
  
“You better hope that’s not the case or I’m going to make you and your garlic-despising ass buy me a new one.”  
  
“You’re my wife.”  
  
“Oh am I? Where’s the wedding certificate?” Hakuno took a step back, spreading her arms out a little. “Do you see a single thing that belongs to me in this place? I can tell you right now that I don’t really own much of anything and I don’t see a single of my medical textbooks in here. I don’t think I could afford the property tax on this place, even if I switched to plastic surgery.”  
  
“Welcome to the higher tax bracket then. You are who you are and-“  
  
“That’s a broke doctor who uses work to travel.”  
  
He moved so fast that she wasn’t even able to do anything other than stagger back a little. An arm was catching her at the last minute, the man leaning in close. She could see fangs now. Oh, but they were out and fully in view.  
  
She had hit a sore spot somehow.  
  
“You name is Hakuno Kishinami, correct?”  
  
“I-it is.”  
  
“And you enjoy more than indulging in sweets, pushing limits, and you have a habit for being incredibly stubborn despite any and all odds.”  
  
It almost sounded endearing the way he put it. “You’re still not wrong.”  
  
“You get frustrated after staying up more than a day at a time. When you get upset, you tend to have your expression go blank. You cover your mouth when you laugh at times, mostly because you’re self-conscious of that little dimple set of yours that comes to your face when you laugh. You get worried when you think you’re letting people down, to the point where it starts giving you headaches and you end up getting sick if you worry long and hard enough. You have a weakness for felines. Doesn’t matter the damn size of the fleabag, the more they take to you, the more you spoil them.”  
  
She just stared at him.  
  
“Tell me I’m wrong, Hakuno.”  
  
He wasn’t.  
  
But no one knew her that well. Not a single damn person in this world knew her like this man seemed to know. She had never told anyone about the headaches being related to stress. It was always weather or traffic or just something in the area that was messing with her senses. Nero had been a particular headache at times when she’d add to the stress. Gods love her, but she’d sing at the worst times with Bathory and the stress levels would rise.  
  
The expressions things with laughing and getting mad could have been obvious to some extent, but she’d never thought about her laugh. She hadn’t laughed in a long time.  
  
The cats thing…  
  
Gods, she hadn’t seen a cat since she was tiny. She’d tried to bring one home, crying at the fact that cats couldn’t be kept in the foster home.  
  
He knew that she was questioning things now. The smug man straightened, crossing his arms and smirking away. “I know you as well as I know my ziggurat and Enkidu. Instead of fighting the possibilities, branch out with that great mind of yours. Question why I know these things. Question what you think of me.”  
  
“I don’t think much of you…”  
  
She could say that at least.  
  
“That’s because you’re being shallow-minded. Your world is full of straight questions and straight answers. You’re too stuck on black and white. There’s a whole spectrum of colors, but your stuck trying to control everything. That’s where we went wrong before. We can learn from that.”  
  
“I’m here a week. To study the effects happening to the people here.” She took a step back. This conversation needed to end. “I’m here to investigate.”  
  
“At nightfall, your goal is to join me in entertaining our companions. If you want to truly show that you don’t hate Nefertari and you don’t want to fall into Ozymandias’ bad graces, then you will spend a few hours talking to them with me. Enkidu and I intend to have a dinner with them, since they have arrived early.”  
  
“I’ll stay for a dinner, but if it gets long, I’m leaving.”  
  
He looked pissed at that, but she held up a hand. “I don’t know you or Enkidu well enough and I know Nefertari will ask me questions about you both. She was asking about you and I when I was talking to her before.”  
  
“Would you care to learn more about me?”  
  
Not particularly. Same feeling went for Enkidu-  
  
But the man was grabbing her wrist, pulling her along through the hallways. She had to lift up her skirts, following after him and promising herself pants on the morrow. She was going to either find a pair of pants or she was going to straight up take a pair of scissors to these dresses.  
  
The man was leading her to the throne in another room though, the light streaming into the room making her pause.  
  
“I won’t let you burn,” he promised.  
  
Oh, not if she listened anyway.  
  
But the man was leading her further into the room, setting her onto the throne and motioning her to remain for a moment.  
  
She sat and waited, shifting a little as she looked around.  
  
Everything felt familiar in the way the room looked. Despite being almost entirely empty, she knew this seat. She knew this wood beneath her fingers, the room around them as grand as ever. She knew the feeling of looking out at people.  
  
Her hand went to her chest, feeling for necklaces that weren’t there. Her breath caught, eyes looking to the king who was moving to a nearby area where a second chair was located.  
  
This wasn’t his seat.  
  
_“Is there a problem, Hakuno?”_  
  
_She looked over at him, letting the citizens move from the room. The guards were escorting the last of the advisors from the room. Her stomach was still churning. The last few citizen complaints had been hard to listen to. Her vision had blurred, her mind getting foggy._  
  
_“Nothing is wrong,” she told him. Gods, she hoped nothing was wrong. Looking over at that worried look again, she wished it was something she could simply declare as a good sign. This pain was becoming hard to hide. The man was worrying over Enkidu. He didn’t need a second burden to become concerned with._  
  
_“They will be fine,” Gilgamesh told her, his brow scrunching a little. She had fallen for that little wrinkle in his brow, a sign of perfect imperfection on a flawless face._  
  
_“I’m sure they will be. Come here.”_  
  
_The man was already sighing, knowing what she was going to do and hating it. He had hated it for so damn long, but she hated when he went on one of those denial oriented lectures of his, even when they both knew he was avoiding telling her the truth._  
  
_Her lips pressed against that wrinkle, smile coming to her face as the man growled at her._  
  
_“Hakuno…”_  
  
_“I still love it,” she told him, grinning a little as he wrapped his arms around her and yanked her to him. Her arms went to his shoulders, pulling him a little closer yet._  
  
_Her vision was blurring for a moment there._  
  
_“Hakuno-“_  
  
_“You know, I hope any children we have has that wrinkle of yours. I want all of them to have it so you have to see it creep up all the time on you.”_  
  
_“What a cruel queen I have,” he growled. “I hope you know they’re going to end up having those laugh lines. They’re going to laugh and you’re going to see them every single time.”_  
  
_“We’re having wrinkly children then,” she teased._  
  
_“Stop cursing our future children, Hakuno. Cease your prattling.”_  
  
_She just laughed._  
  
Hakuno looked over as Gilgamesh set the chair down next to hers, settling in as the sunlight began to filter into the room a little more.  
  
“People used to stream in here from the city to have their cases seen to. Normally property arguments or theft.”  
  
She must have still been feeling the effects of whatever that memory was. She reached over without thinking, touching at the wrinkle on his brow. He had his eyebrows just form the perfect wrinkle there.  
  
The man stopped at that, staring over at her.  
  
“…Why did you do that?”  
  
Why did she do that?  
  
“Your brow wrinkles whenever you get upset.”  
  
He was holding her hand there, not allowing her to take it back. She tried to move and he just leaned in closer.  
  
“You remember more.”  
  
She shook her head.  
  
“You never could lie worth a damn.” He was beginning to grin, leaning in closer. “Did you remember tormenting me during a diplomat meeting? Perhaps one of the many times you and Enkidu felt inclined to tease me while you weren’t feeling well? Do you remember arguing with me about something? You always ended our arguments like that.”  
  
“I don’t…”  
  
His hand tightened a bit.  
  
There would be no letting up until she confessed. That was obvious. “I remembered telling you that I hoped any children we had got that wrinkle in your brow. You told me they’d get my dimples and thus we’d have wrinkled babies.”  
  
She was yanked from the seat she was in in an instant. Those lips slammed against her own, his eyes closing as he took claim to her.  
  
He felt so good kissing her. It truly wasn’t fair. She wasn’t sure what to make of these memories and he was making it hard to think of anything else here. There was work to do and she was suffering that romantic kick that Nefertari seemed to be indoctrinated in.  
  
“Hakuno,” he breathed.  
  
“Let me go,” she told him, slowly pulling back and frowning. “I don’t know you well enough for this. We don’t know each other well enough for this.”  
  
“You remember being here. You remember being mine.”  
  
“I remember strange things. I can’t make sense of it. I’m here for a week to investigate things around Uruk.”  
  
“Hakuno-“  
  
“I told you to go slow.”  
  
Both of them paused, looking over as Enkidu entered the room. Walking across the sunlight, the being shook their head.  
  
“Slow means not dragging her into the throne room and pushing her to remember when she isn’t ready. Just because Nefertari was easily accepting, does not mean Hakuno will be the same. She is much more independent.”  
  
Thank gods for Enkidu.  
  
“However, we have things to worry about and the others are coming closer. We can’t afford to have any further complications right now.”  
  
Gilgamesh was still holding her tight though. She squirmed a bit before feeling Enkidu behind her.  
  
“Hakuno, you’ve made Ozymandias not trust us.”  
  
“Huh?”  
  
“Enkidu is right,” Gil murmured. “He’s suspicious that you are not at all being willed to anything. If he senses we’re not of one mind on matters, then he will become a problem. As will the others when they arrive.”  
  
“I don’t need to be of one mind,” she argued.  
  
“We are not human,” Enkidu told her, settling into her seat and running their hands along the arm. “With four leaders of four areas, there are certain guidelines that we must abide by. They’re not polite rules. Artoria had to kill her own child. The others have all lost something important. Even Ozymandias almost lost his friend and brother when they decided to oppose them. We are lucky that he became obedient at the end.”  
  
“You’re telling me that they’re going to want to kill me if I don’t agree to what you both want.”  
  
“They won’t get far.”  
  
Enkidu just gave the king a look, sighing.  
  
Hakuno looked over at the king, but there was that wrinkle again. He didn’t like this. He wasn’t pleased at the idea, but…  
  
There was that but.  
  
They would have to do something about her if she wasn’t obedient.  
  
Being his wife was not something she was not in the mood for. She was not anyone’s. She had a whole life and a whole mess to sort through. Spending a week here was already pushing limits. Sitting for a dinner with the two guests they had was one thing, but…  
  
What would she do if she left here? How long would she live?  
  
She didn’t know what the other two looked like that were in charge of things.  
  
“I have no intention of controlling you,” Gilgamesh murmured, turning her face to his own. “I would not have pushed forward with this plan unless it was absolutely necessary.”  
  
“Why am I here?”  
  
“We weren’t lying when we said there was a sickness in Uruk.” Enkidu leaned back in the seat a little more. “While officially, our actions were to bring you to us, unofficially, we found you were trained in handling diseases and found there’s a sickness running through the people. Before the other areas begin to notice the same in their people, we need to find a solution.”  
  
A solution?  
  
“Are you an idiot?” Hakuno frowned at the being, shifting a little on the king’s lap. “Sicknesses don’t get resolved in a matter of days. If you’re telling the truth, then we’re going to need months, maybe even years to resolve this. Some diseases don’t even have cures.”  
  
Both of them didn’t seem pleased with that answer.  
  
“You found vaccines for the problems elsewhere.”  
  
“I had help with the vaccines elsewhere, help which you so kindly killed.” She crossed her arms, glaring at the being for that.  
  
“They had been forewarned by the church.” Enkidu shook their head. “There’s someone within your group that knows of us. I took the chance at taking care of the issue when opportunity presented itself.”  
  
“And now I have no one to work with.”  
  
“Enkidu and I are more than happy to supply whatever you need for this.”  
  
“Do either of you have this problem?”  
  
No, they didn’t. They both were looking at her like she was mad at the very question. As though they would allow such sickness into their lives.  
  
“You are not to get too close to it, Hakuno.”  
“That’s how we find vaccines. I have a hazmat suit somewhere in this place… hopefully. I can see them while wearing that.”  
  
“None of the bodies life for long and we’ve been burning them as they show up. The humans did the same when the black plague was roaming through Europe,” Enkidu warned.  
  
“I see.”  
  
“You both can begin with a better explanation tonight after dinner. I’ll keep the guests occupied. I may also provide samples of their blood in case they are infected.” Gilgamesh leaned back, his hand moving through her hair. “I still require you both at dinner, attending and pleased about it.”  
  
“Your people are sick and you want to have dinner?”  
  
“Pleasure waits for nothing, Hakuno.”  
  
“Again, it’s important to keep appearances. If they sense-“  
  
“Take me to see what you have setup so far.” Hakuno looked between the two and stood up, careful to avoid the sunlight. “I’ll go to the dinner, but we’ll stay up a while to look into this disease of yours. I want to see what we’re dealing with and if it’s bad then we’re going to need help.”  
  
“We can’t publicize this, even to organizations or groups only.”  
  
She just growled at that, looking over at the king. Gilgamesh was going to let Enkidu simply stick to the guns on this one. They didn’t have time for this. They didn’t have time at all.  
  
“How many people have you lost?”  
  
“Forty.”  
  
Forty.  
  
Forty lives lost because these two were keeping this quiet. They weren’t sure who else was suffering from this illness or how it was being spread. They were simply sitting around in this giant pyramid and arguing with one another over how fast to push her to remember things from some past life of hers. Instead of working with their people, they were entertaining guests to keep up appearances.  
  
“We’ll work on this every day,” she told them. “As soon as the guests are asleep, we will go and try to look into whatever this plague of yours is. I want a map of where these people lived and anything else you can tell me. I’ll need those samples from you both and from our guests to be safe, but there’s no time to argue with you both.”  
  
Enkidu stood up, nodding. They started to move a moment before pausing, their hands delving into their pocket.  
  
“Here.”  
  
“What’s this?” Hakuno looked at the bottle, frowning.  
  
“It’s for the sunlight. Not many of us are able to have access because Gil and I make the treatment ourselves. Think of it as sunscreen.”  
  
So this was how they were managing. Hakuno poured a little into her hands, finding herself pausing. The lotion itself reeked of fruit juice. It must have had some kind of sweet content to it.  
  
“We found out about the main ingredient a few years after the change,” Gilgamesh murmured. Enkidu was heading away from the room, crossing through the light as Gilgamesh took the liberty of taking the bottle from her hands and beginning to put it onto her. “It’s nothing more than apricots and pears.”  
  
She watched the king move slowly, rubbing in the lotion and frowned a little. “How long would you have waited?”  
  
“Hmm?”  
  
“How long would you have waited to contact me about this past life business?”  
  
“Enkidu and I had agreed on allowing you to another year, since you were doing that organization business. We had a plan to have you sent on a useless mission and meet me while travelling.”  
  
There wasn’t much else to do besides nod. The man leaned in closer, running his hands over hers.  
  
“How long have you known about me?”  
  
“We awakened from a long rest about twenty years ago. We sensed something important, but we didn’t find you until you were in school. You were seeing a blonde woman at the time.”  
  
Nero.  
  
Hakuno looked back at him and shook her head. “I’m here to solve a problem and then leave. That’s it.”  
  
Even saying that felt like a lie.  
  
The man didn’t comment on that though. He handed her back the bottle and waited until she had it on. Then, once that was done, he led her to the bedroom again.  
“Enkidu is going to be putting together the lab area for you,” he explained, pulling off his shirt and heading for the bed. “You can stare at him or you can rest. I know from my time with you that you don’t think well on your feet when you’re exhausted.”  
  
“No vampire help with that?”  
  
He merely held out his hands, waiting for her.  
  
“This means nothing,” she reminded him, moving to the bed.  
  
He didn’t listen. She closed her eyes as she felt his arms wrapping around him.  
  
_She always did ease right down the moment he did that._  
  
_Her head leaned back against him, her face pressing to him as she simply sighed. The man didn’t seem to understand that there wasn’t danger here. Instead, often times, she found herself in bed with Gilgamesh and Enkidu, the latter of the two sneaking their way in after romps with the temple maidens or meandering into the wilderness around Uruk. Sometimes they wanted a few hours to be with the wild._  
  
_But that was fine. She had moments where she could indulge with Gil._  
  
_“I love you.”_  
  
_The king merely laughed at that, enjoying every moment single the statement first fell from her lips. It had been a mistake on her part, since she had wanted him to say the words first. Yet she didn’t regret them, since they probably would have spent eternity waiting for one another to say something._  
  
_“Hakuno…” Gilgamesh leaned in closer behind her. She could feel him pressing his lips to her neck lightly. “don’t say such things and then look at Enkidu and I with such mistrust. You’ll hurt the very friend you and the temple maiden who saved you brought to me.”_  
  
“I love you…"  
  
She wasn’t sure where the words were coming from other than this dreaming of hers, but they felt right. Lying down next to the man was bringing only more of these strange memories to mind.  
  
“I know,” he murmured. His arms tightened around her a little more as a figure slowly moved into the bed. She could feel their arms wrapping around her as well. “We both know, Hakuno. Rest for now.”


	6. Page of Cups

There was a hand on her waist. A face pressed against her neck.  
  
Hakuno stared ahead of herself, trying to take a moment to breathe through the instinct to push the person away. She needed to think.  
  
A head of green hair moved up the bed, into her view. She could see those eyes practically glinting a little as they smiled to her.  
  
“Good evening, Hakuno… It’s a bit early for being up and about. Are you thirsty?”  
  
Thirsty?  
  
Now that the other mentioned it, yes.  
  
She was really thirsty for some reason. She moved slightly, trying to sit up and finding the arms around her tightening a little more. She looked over, finding Gilgamesh pulling back a little to look over at her blearily.  
  
“What are you-“  
  
“I’m thirsty.”  
  
Enkidu snickered nearby as the king merely laid back against the pillows and exposed his neck more.  
  
“My neck is available. Don’t go meandering when we have guests. You should be drinking from me for right now anyway. Enkidu will stop you when you’ve had enough.”  
  
Drink… from him?  
  
“I’m not going to drink from you,” Hakuno argued, sighing.  
  
“Vampires drink blood.”  
  
“I don’t drink blood. I just need a glass of juice or coffee or something along those lines.”  
  
“Oh, is that so?” The man rolled onto his back, smirking. Oh, but she wasn’t a fan of that smirk. It was nothing less than a ‘I know you’re being a dumbass and I’m going to just let you go on and bury yourself that much deeper into your dumbassery.’  
  
And now she was trying to read his emotions.  
  
Hakuno shook her head, moving around the clay being and standing up properly. Her hands went to a robe nearby, glancing towards Enkidu. “Would you like to join me?”  
  
“Well, since you insisted,” Gilgamesh replied, moving to climb to his feet.  
  
“I was inviting Enkidu.”  
  
“I bet you were,” Gilgamesh replied.  
  
Enkidu laid on the bed properly, putting their hands behind their head and laughing a little. “Enjoy one another’s company. I’m going to rest a bit longer before we get started with being professional and the high class people that we need to be in front of the others. Besides,” Enkidu smiled a little more as they closed their eyes, “I want to listen to the silence a little longer.”  
  
Hakuno sighed as she turned away.  
  
Fine then, she’d take herself to the kitchens.  
  
An arm was wrapping around her own though, fingers lacing through her own as the king took the lead. She went to argue, but the man wasn’t doing it to tease her offhand. He wasn’t even looking her way as they wandered through the hallways. With the man taking the lead, she could take a look around again.  
  
The tapestries weren’t really oriented towards him.  
  
If anything, they held the same symbols on them. Great golden symbols, lovingly stitched onto the red fabrics. She could see pictures of warriors, but they were of a great brunet. Definitely not the king before her. A blond woman could be seen in one, wrapping her arms around the brunet.  
  
Different.  
  
Here, she had expected them to hold images of the king and the green haired being.  
  
The golden vases and other adornments were strangely lacking in anything really boasting the king as well.  
  
“It’s the symbol for Ninsun,” Gilgamesh stated.  
  
“Hmm?”  
  
“The symbol on all the fabrics. It’s the symbol for Ninsun. She’s the goddess of cows and steers.”  
  
Hakuno frowned, “You keep the symbol for a cow goddess on the walls.”  
  
“Humans work like cogs in an oversized machine.”  
  
“Alright. Clearly she’s important.” Hakuno shook her head at him and held his hand a little more. If he was having some kind of pining kind of relationship with a goddess’ image, that was really none of her business. He could go to town for all she cared…  
  
Yes, she wasn’t upset at the thought of that.  
  
Hakuno sighed a little, following him into the kitchen area.  
  
There wasn’t much of a kitchen, now that she was looking. There was a fridge. There was a stove and cabinets. For all intents and purposes, it had the essentials.  
  
But the room was almost a closet in comparison to the rest of the place. She had expected more from this man and this ziggurat. She had expected something like high ceilings and plants overfilling pots and stainless steel appliances. She had half expected to walk into a kitchen that was showed off in all the magazines in her home city. Marble and gold, sophistication and prestige.  
  
Instead, there was a yellowed fridge, smaller than her own at home in the corner. It was humming loudly next to a stove that looked like it hadn’t been touched in ages. It clearly needed to be cleaned up before use. What’s more, the counters had a layer of dust on them.  
  
Dishes were dripping from a wire shelf on the counter, right onto the fake plastic counter.  
  
“Offhand, how often do you think you use this room?”  
  
“I don’t.”  
  
Thought so.  
  
She didn’t dare say that to him, merely moving forward and opening the fridge.  
  
Her eyes caught sight of something green and she was shutting the fridge immediately. The urge to vomit was great as she watched the king look around with a mildly disgusted expression.  
  
“Who the hell uses this room?”  
  
“Servants, I suppose. I don’t bother with eating. I have blood packets downstairs that I indulge in. Sometimes I purchases cheeses and wine from the city below or I am gifted the finest of the harvests when they occur. I’ve only been awake for around twenty years. That’s hardly time to become too settled in with a routine.”  
  
Oh of course… of course…  
  
Hakuno moved to sit, almost afraid to lean back against the disgusting fridge behind her.  
  
“Aren’t you getting juice?”  
  
“There’s… there’s nothing in this thing that I want to drink.”  
  
Gilgamesh just looked down at her before glancing towards the door. “… I suppose, if it would please you, we could wander down to the city to get something to drink.”  
  
That would require their getting dressed…  
  
It was worth it.  
  
Hakuno stood up immediately, heading for the door and taking his hand as they went. She lead the way back, dropping his hand as they entered the room. She looked around a moment before heading to the closet.  
  
“Welcome back,” Enkidu greeted from the bed.  
  
“Hakuno and I are going to wander to the coffee shops in the city,”  
  
“If you would like to get me a caramel macchiato, that would be wonderful,” the being cooed as they rolled over and pulled the blankets over their person.  
  
Hakuno paused as she looked through the clothes in the closet.  
  
Everything was strange looking. Bold colors, overly flaunting jewelry, scarves and skirts that would never look good even on the greatest of models.  
  
She paused on a rather small set of bags towards the back of the closet.  
  
She picked it up, looking inside a moment before she was heading for the bathroom.  
  
“I’ll be ready to go in a few minutes.”  
  
Gilgamesh was teasing Enkidu, not listening as she shut the door.  
  
Whoever had bought this bag of clothing had possessed some taste. She pulled out the black turtleneck and the brown skirt, smiling a little at the surprisingly plain attire. They fit, much to her personal happiness. She spun around in front of the mirror, looking it over.  
  
It was actually a bit flattering, compared to what she had worn before. The only thing she needed now was her lab coat and her hair tied back and she’d be ready for clinical duty at the hospital she had done her residency work with. She would have looked more like one of the doctors rather than a student.  
  
She opened the door, finding Gilgamesh dressed and still pestering Enkidu.  
  
“I’m ready to go.”  
  
The two stopped half wrestling, glancing her way before Enkidu beamed.  
  
“I see you found my shopping finds.”  
  
“Yes, I did. Thank you.”  
  
Thank you for finally having clothing that didn’t look like it belonged in a burn pile.  
  
“It’s so plain, Enkidu.” Gilgamesh moved from where he was, going to the nightstand a moment before he motioned her over. A necklace like his own was in hand, carefully being placed around her neck as she came closer.  
  
Of course he would. “I don’t need this,” she complained.  
  
“You are the queen consort of this city,” Gilgamesh countered. “If you were dressed in anything less, the city would be wondering what was going on. It was bad enough you wandered out yesterday in less than enough jewelry to be passable. You should be wearing your ring too-“  
  
“Slowly,” Enkidu reminded him. “Slowly.”  
  
That seemed to be none to pleasing to hear.  
  
Hakuno sighed, holding out her hand. “I’ll wear it if you don’t boss me around and do things I don’t want you to do.” Like force her to drink his blood and declare them married and come onto her in the hallways.  
  
Those eyes gleamed a moment before he was pulling the ring from his pocket and returning it to her finger. Back onto her hand it was, with it, her hand was lifted to his lips.  
  
She felt her heart stop a moment at the look in those eyes, the pleasure at the sight of her. It was like she had done something to really make him happy, rather than simply accepted that he was going to complain about the damn ring until it was back on her finger. She had six days. Six days and then she was out of this place and gone.  
  
She would return to the world from before, with a fridge that didn’t have some kind of toxic poison growing in it in the form of a mold.  
  
Yeah, if anything was a plague, it was going to be that fridge and anything around it.  
  
“I suppose I can indulge you a bit,” he gave.  
  
He wasn’t going to give much of anything, she sensed, but she pulled her hand carefully away and turned.  
  
They had mentioned the danger of not listening to him. She would be careful. If she was wearing the ring, perhaps they would all assume she was obeying him and would leave them faster.  
  
The man was pulling her arm into the crook of his once again, promising Enkidu their drink as they headed for the door. Once more they were heading for the front entrance. They paused a moment, Gilgamesh pulling a bottle from near the door and looking over at her.  
  
“We’ll need to prepare for the sunlight.”  
  
Right.  
  
That lovely fact.  
  
Hakuno lifted her skirts, feeling the man working on her legs as she carefully rubbed lotion onto her face and hands. Any skin, according to the man, that was exposed needed to be covered. The sunlight would burn her otherwise. She did her neck for good measure, working the lotion into her hair a little before they moved to him.  
  
It wasn’t much to help him, he was far more covered than she was. He was used to the heat here though. It was nothing to him to wear pants and long sleeves in this great heat.  
  
And then they were on the stairs. Gilgamesh was walking at her side with a lope to his walk, striding down the stairs like he was walking off the runway. The citizens seemed to be stuck inside for the most part, waving from the windows if anything and greeting them with clapping or gracious manners.  
  
They stopped at the door to the nearest café, Gilgamesh pulling the door open and motioning her in.  
  
The quaint little place was still opening up as they entered. The people behind the counter scurried to their stations, pulling out cups and welcoming them.  
  
She had to order something strong, knowing what was to come.  
  
She would need to play the loving wife to this man tonight. For all intents and purposes, she would need to feel that he wasn’t the complete and utter ass that he had originally made himself out to be.  
  
Then again, Enkidu had made himself out to be an ass. It seemed like, at this point, that they were just someone caught up in just doing what they were told.  
  
“Let’s sit for a bit. We can talk freely here and you can order anything else you’d like.”  
  
It was probably not the best plan in mind, but…  
  
“I have to pretend to tolerate you tonight and listen, don’t I?”  
  
“You do.” He settled into a seat near the window, motioning for her to sit with her cup of coffee. “Not that that should be a problem. You’ve made your intentions quite clear last night.”  
  
“Hmm?”  
  
The man smirked over his drink, gaze turning towards the counter once more. “How cruel, playing with the emotions of mine and Enkidu’s in that manner. If you do not recall, I will not be like some child to pine for the love of another.”  
  
“Says the man who literally set this whole thing up to get me here.” She sipped at her drink a little, watching him.  
  
He shrugged.  
  
“Did you love that other me that much then?”  
  
“You speak so audaciously,” he leaned back a little. “It’s as though you insist on putting that infernal foot of yours in your mouth.”  
  
“Well, I’m not a creature of the night. A sin against god and all that, aren’t I? I should probably be some kind of sex fiend or something next. Don’t vampires usually turn into garlic hating promiscuous creatures over time?”  
  
The man sighed. “If that is what you believe, then you have truly changed from the one that stood beside me. Pleasure and sin are not the same thing. You of all people knew that at one time. You were unaccustomed to pleasure, that is true, but you knew the difference. You did not play these games with me. Pleasure is. Sin is the corruption of man, their folly and naivety. To call them the same thing is heinous.”  
  
“Not all sin is pleasure, but-“  
  
“But what?” Gilgamesh looked over at her, leaning over the table. “Do you find your pleasure in drinking your coffee a sin? Do you find the pleasure you find in helping others to be a sin? Is being polite to Nefertari a sin? You cannot have all pleasure a sin otherwise all life is a sin. Perhaps you have become so engrossed in the darkness of the world that you have lost your way.”  
  
“I have not become engrossed in anything.”  
  
“Is that so?”  
  
“Yes.” She was a doctor, a healer. What she did was for the benefit-  
  
“You are someone who finds cures.” Gilgamesh pointed out. “You work to the benefit of others, by going to places abandoned by the gods themselves. You take away the opportunity to indulge and spoil yourself in life by going to where life has been lost. By your own will and merits, you strive for vaccines and treatments to save others. You give and give, but yet I find you here, unable to understand the opportunity that Enkidu and I have provided to you. You have the opportunity to experience that happiness for yourself, yet you think nothing more about going back to the edge of hell to return to your fight against the gods.”  
  
“It’s not against gods. It’s to help people live a better life.” Sometimes it was to have a life in general.  
  
“But it is at the sacrifice of your own pleasure, isn’t it?”  
  
Point taken. She opted to drink her coffee, looking out towards the waning sun in the distance. “What about you?”  
  
“Hmm?”  
  
“Well, you’re a vampire. You can’t go out into the sunlight without putting on lotion you had to create yourself. You can’t exactly get into a meaningful relationship at this point. You can’t really do flings since they would remember you. You have to indulge in blood. I can’t imagine you enjoy too many hobbies and pleasures yourself.”  
  
“I’ve had twenty years in the past few hundred to be awake.”  
  
“And what did you do the last time you awakened?”  
  
The man hummed softly, wiping at an eye as though to remove some gunk. “Last time… I believe it was Vlad Tepes that I converted. Before that was around the fifth or sixth century. I converted King Arthur.”  
  
Great. Dracula and King Arthur were running around the world, a couple of vampires themselves.  
  
“They’ll be visiting in the next couple days,” Gilgamesh went on. “Arthur will be simple enough to tolerate. He takes no more pleasure than you do in being a vampire. If it was not for the lotion, I fear he may have easily been lost.”  
  
Somehow he didn’t seem pleased at the prospect.  
  
“And Vlad?”  
  
“He’s an old soul. I suppose if he becomes troublesome, you could throw a yarn ball his way and watch him knit.”  
  
“There’s nothing wrong with knitting.”  
  
“Do you knit?”  
  
Hakuno winced. “I… I don’t think I’ve knitted since I was at the orphanage. Even then, I don’t think I ever finished that scarf.” It was most likely lying in the bottom of some drawer, if not already undone by a handful of children. Or perhaps it was in the bottom of one of the storage boxes she had never bothered to unpack in her apartment. She was never home, after all. She probably just needed to throw away the mementos from childhood already.  
  
“What issues do you have with me?”  
  
“Hmm?”  
  
Gilgamesh motioned around. “We’re alone at the moment, for all intents and purposes. It would be best to clear the air between us before we return and act as one for the evening. Nefertari and Ozymandias will expect us to be on the same wavelength.”  
  
Hakuno went to sip her drink, finding it empty.  
  
She had downed the whole cup and still felt thirsty. More than usual, actually. The drinks had done nothing.  
  
“You’re in need of blood,” he told her.  
  
“I’m not drinking from you.”  
  
The man rolled his eyes, glancing towards the window again.  
  
“I’m not.”  
  
“And what do you find so wrong about it? You need blood to live and mine will provide the most energy to you.”  
  
“I don’t want to drink from someone that I speak to and have conversations with!”  
  
“Do humans eat cows? Sheep? Rabbit and chickens? You can speak to them just as easily.”  
  
“Okay, but you’re a human being. Drinking from you is-“  
  
“I have stored blood from me if it is drinking from my neck that bothers you. I could put it in a glass if that is what helps you to get the nutrients that you actually need rather than bean juice and caffeine.”  
  
Hakuno sighed. “You’re being rude about this.”  
  
“I’m being practical. You’re putting your foot down with every step of this. You are so concerned with your sense of morals that you are only setting yourself up for failure.”  
  
“And then you start preaching.”  
  
The man wrinkled his nose, calling across the room for another two cups of coffee.  
  
“Shouldn’t we go back?”  
  
“We need to come to an agreement.”  
  
Hakuno sighed. Her cup was set down, but she found herself toying with the ring on her finger. “I’ll listen, if only to be able to avoid getting either of us into trouble we don’t need.”  
  
The cups of coffee were set down after a couple minutes. Hakuno sighed as she began drinking the next cup quietly as the other one was taken away.  
  
Gilgamesh thanked the service person quietly before he leaned in once again. His hand took hers, lifting it up to his lips.  
  
Those red eyes were looking deep into hers as he did it, as though he could sense the precise moment her heart did that strange fluttering.  
  
He turned her hand around, kissing at her wrist, continuing that eye contact.  
  
Another heart stutter.  
  
Maybe she had a heart condition.  
  
“You behave like a woman in fear of intimacy,” he murmured.  
  
“I don’t fear intimacy, I just wonder if you can even manage that after all this time. You’re how old? A few thousand years? Do you even work down there?”  
  
He snorted, releasing her and picking up his new cup of coffee. “You’ll find I have no problem in that regard.”  
  
“I don’t think I want to know.”  
  
He just smirked at her over the rim of his cup.  
  
Another few minutes of silence took over as the two of them indulged in their drinks. As the man had pointed out, she needed blood. it was becoming more and more apparent that the coffee was going to do nothing to help in this matter.  
  
Honestly, if she was going to be drinking blood, she was going to do it as the man had offered. She would just drink from a cup. It would be the most natural manner. Obviously, the threat of drinking blood was unimportant in her new state of being. Her body was somehow able to breakdown and utilize the nutrients in blood.  
  
“You’re playing with the ring again,” Gilgamesh pointed out.  
  
“Hmm- Oh.” She set her hand down, wrapping it around her cup again.  
  
“It’s not a bad habit,” he offered. “If you find the need to do so, you may feel free to do it in front of the guests we will be having visit. They will assume that you are thinking of other things.”  
  
Great.  
  
“How about this,” he offered. “My people need a cure for this… problem,” he stated, glancing towards the counter. “You may order me around in your little lab of yours. I have offered you samples of myself and Enkidu for finding a solution to the problem. During the evenings, I will have us behave as I wish. You may have from dawn until nightfall.”  
  
“And if I don’t want to do anything with you?”  
  
“I have no concerns in that regard.”  
  
“I’m fine with that.”  
  
“You must be a very loving wife in the evening. Convincing. You already seem to be aware that you cannot act to save your life.”  
  
She couldn’t.  
  
“Why do you want to save your people so badly?”  
  
The man paused, looking over at her with a frown. “Why? That’s a fool’s question. They are my people. They deserve to enjoy their afterlife as much as myself and Enkidu. They have done nothing but serve their king and it is my duty as their king to see to them in my own manner. They also brought you back to me through their own acting. These walls, this city,” he motioned around them. “It is their gift to me. I cannot simply turn them away.”  
  
He cared about them.  
  
She cared about them because they were people.  
  
He cared about them because they were his people.  
  
Her mind flickered to the memories she had found plaguing her mind the night before. If she held onto that fact, ignoring his behavior and his smirks that tugged at her bad moods then perhaps…  
  
“I think I will be alright for now.”  
  
She would have to find other questions, other reasons as the week dragged on.  
  
For now, she would just have to settle for his love of his people, his love for coffee, and the fact that some part of her seemed to think she had been with him at one time. At an impossible time, her mind argued.  
  
His eyes drifted to the window once more, a sigh escaping him.  
  
“Time to return?”  
  
“The others will awaken soon enough.”  
  
“That’s fine.” Hakuno moved from his side, ordering Enkidu’s drink and something sweet for them to eat before she looked over at him.  
  
He didn’t seem pleased at the prospect of returning to the palace.  
  
Was it concern for her? Was he worried she couldn’t pass off as smitten with him?  
  
Somehow, that felt endearing to think about. The man looked so lost and torn. Being a king would have been difficult, especially for this length of time. Converting whom he had, it would have been even more interesting to try to keep in touch with the others before the age of telephones and internet. This man had managed it for thousands of years. He had managed not to simply be dragged out into sunlight and left to burn to death.  
  
“Thank you,” Hakuno told the baristas as she accepted the gifts for Enkidu.  
  
“Something to eat too?”  
  
“Enkidu might be hungry,” Hakuno replied easily.  
  
The king took the bag from her, holding it in his other hand as he escorted her through the doorway and back along the sidewalks. More people were wandering out a little with the sun set. Their lamps were turning on, lights illuminating the way back. Hakuno found herself pressing a bit closer to the king’s side as they made their way up the steps of the ziggurat.  
  
For some reason, that lost look was still in his expression. Hakuno found herself lacing her fingers with his, leaning against him a bit more as they walked. She could be comforting. Perhaps all he wanted was the opportunity to just get away from the politics of it all. He had looked more relaxed in the coffee shop than he had in the palace. Despite all the arrogance he had shown, he hadn't seemed entirely comfortable.   
  
When he looked her way, she lifted his hand up, kissing his hand as he had kissed hers.  
  
Something gleamed in his eyes at that.   
  
At the top of the stairs, they could hear the sound of Nefertari talking quietly to Ozymandias.  
  
“My flower-“  
  
“I’m just going to say hello,” Nefertari argued.  
  
The two paused as Gilgamesh and her passed through the entrance. Hakuno took the bag from Gilgamesh, leaning up and kissing him.  
  
The kiss was never going to be simple, was it? Her lips were stolen as she went to give him a gentle peck on the lips. Her hands almost dropped the food and drink. She felt the whimper that escaped her as the man smirked against her lips.  
  
She pulled back, panting softly. “You can greet them properly… I’ll just…”  
  
The man leaned in, wiping at her lip as those red eyes once again looked at her with nothing less than hunger. “Go awaken Enkidu. I will be waiting for you in the sitting room with these two. I’ll permit you my lap since we have not fully remodeled the palace just yet.”  
  
Her feet wouldn’t move for a moment, a cough being the only thing that made her jump.  
  
She hurried off, listening to the king greet the two nearby.  
  
“You were not expected to be up so early. Hakuno and I were just enjoying an intimate mortal drink with one another.”  
  
“Do you so often wander into Uruk?”  
  
“Hakuno is newly turned, Ramses. You understand how difficult the process of becoming a vampire can be. I won’t be one to turn her away from the pleasures of life. If anything, it’s reminded me a great deal of how much entertainment can be had with foolish mongrel pleasures.”  
  
He was a good king.  
  
He was a good king who loved his people.  
  
“You will have to excuse us for a time after dinner though. In allowing her the time to indulge in her foolish pleasures, I have neglected to feed her. She will be starved for blood by the end of our chat. I look forward to the look of need in her eyes. She can be so forward.”  
  
Hakuno was glaring all the way to their room, more or less tossing the food Enkidu’s way before she asked where the blood collections were.  
  
She was not drinking from that arrogant son of a bitch.


	7. Medicinal Herbs and Disease

Enkidu didn’t even pause in directing her through the maze of a palace, hopping onto one of the coolers as Hakuno looked around the space.

Dozens of different fridges were in the room, carefully latched and bolted shut. The keys were pulled from the smoke detector, used to open the nearest one so that they could pull out a bottle.

“This would be Gil’s blood. We don’t have as much so you will eventually need to drink from him, but that’s alright. For now, it may be best to get you used to him personally before you go about drinking from him.”

“I’d rather not,” Hakuno replied.

Enkidu nodded, pouring a glass and handing it her way. “Meeting with the others will be fine. You simply just tone out Gilgamesh. I prefer a nice melody or thinking about food I can eat later. Sometimes I get so caught up in thinking about food, he realizes I haven’t been paying attention and I simply tell him that I’m starved. You should see how fast he becomes caught up in stopping the conversation to get me some blood. It’s great.”

“You could have better friends.”

“I have two great friends. I could ask for nothing better.”

“Two?”

“I have Gilgamesh and I have you… Had you, although I have not given up hope so quickly.” Enkidu smiled at her, working to tie their hair back.

“Things are a little too complicated-“

“They’re annoying. I understand how close you were to your friends. I get that you won’t want to be my friend right now. In time though, I hope to gain back what was lost. You are remembering things, are you not?”

She sipped at the blood, nodding.

There was no use in denying that she was seeing things; visions of the impossible.

“How long have you been having the visions? You mentioned something before when we were on our way here.”

“I did.”

She could still see it all, the walls of golden color, the arms holding onto her tightly. The begging, oh but all the begging rang in her ears. She couldn’t unhear Gilgamesh’s voice now. She couldn’t unsee the golden hair hanging over her face. They begged. Pleaded.

He didn’t want her to die. He didn’t want to be without her. He couldn’t, he claimed. He refused to give up what they had together, what they could create together.

They begged again.

Their voice was choking up, thick with that emotion.

How many times had she awakened to that voice? To that cold sweat over her body as she tried to think through the tears streaming down her face.

Sitting through exam after exam, hearing them beg her to live, she had worked that much harder than the others around her. She had abandoned the opportunity to go out, to live. She had buckled down and now…

“Gilgamesh watched you die in his arms,” Enkidu told her, leaning back now. The being straightened their shirt, glancing towards the door. “Despite his attitude and his comments, I think you should take the chance to look at his actions.”

“He is great when it comes to actions.”

Enkidu raised a brow at her.

“He was nice enough to take me into the city. He didn’t need to let me enjoy the city like he did. You both pointed out that I could have simply been surrendered. I know that I’m being allowed to live because he can show moments. I just also know that he has no idea what I do or really appreciates what I’m capable of. I am simply the woman he loved before.”

“You are more than that. He keeps you alive because he has some respect.” Those eyes gleamed as they looked at her. “You are not simply the woman he loved before. You and I both know that. Despite the memory and the moments of interest, you are far more than whatever was there before. You breathe and think differently. You have suffered and grown into your own on your own. The only thing that binds you to us at this point and the only thing that I know is true is that somehow those memories of death inspired you. They encouraged you to be something that our king can respect and he does not give respect, especially to the fairer gender, so easily.”

“Why stay with a king that cannot respect women?”

“Why live in a world polluted with the grime and mistakes of millennia of human beings? Why live in a world where the people fight in wars? Why work within governments that are corrupt? Why save lives when the very people you work for exploit the people for their money in exchange for their lives?” Enkidu shrugged their shoulders. “I have hope, Hakuno. I know that it is with my presence, not my absence, that change can occur. I make things better, even in the finer details. I do what I can and I take pride in my victories time and time again.”

Hakuno sipped more of the blood, finishing the glass before she held out the glass again. A refill was given. Hakuno shook her head as she looked at the dark drink. “You would make a wonderful motivational speaker.”

“I do my best. I did speak on your behalf and on Gil’s behalf many times.”

She nodded. It would make sense. The being was talented at speaking. They seemed to know exactly how to turn a phrase.

“Tell me something Gilgamesh would not appreciate me knowing.”

Those green eyes widened. “What?”

“Something Gilgamesh wouldn’t appreciate me remembering. I know there has to be something other than the crease between his eyes when he gets upset or laughs too hard.”

“You’re asking for trouble with such requests.”

“I know for a fact that he’s going to make a fool of me in front of those two he’s with. I want to at least be able to stand at equal footing with him.”

“I should not say such horrible things about my king,” Enkidu argued, leaning back and looking away.

It had been worth a shot. She’d just have to end up tuning the king out. Maybe she could push Nefertari to tell her a little more about herself. Something that wasn’t about Ozymandias, if at all possible.

“I definitely shouldn’t tell you that Gilgamesh can’t sleep without you,” Enkidu told her. “I took to sleeping with him, but you don’t need to know that. Nor do you need to be informed that Gilgamesh always had a deep admiration for any time that you decided to indulge in showing affection in front of company. He’s about aesthetic. Being shown off hits that pride of his.”

Probably not the best plan, but she could feel some ideas coming from those words. She was supposed to play the smitten long lost love. “I’m glad you could not tell me these things.”

“If you find that you are annoyed with him, I would advise against mentioning his singing talents. He’s… not quite up to standard.”

Oh?

“I think I should probably get to visiting Gilgamesh, don’t you think?”

Enkidu snickered, offering their arm. They moved quietly, Hakuno’s hands holding up her dress and wine glass. The blood was still halfway filling the glass, showing where she had been drinking. It wasn’t even more than five minutes before Enkidu was knocking on the sitting room.

“Hakuno and I have arrived,” Enkidu offered.

“There you both are. Did you take a detour?” Gilgamesh sat up, looking over at them only to hone in on the wine glass. “What’s this?”

“Enkidu noticed I was thirsty,” Hakuno replied. “Thankfully, they decided that I really shouldn’t be going too long without drinking. I might not be able to help myself.”

Ozymandias and Nefertari nodded at the two of them as they settled in.

“Your king was discussing with us your arrangements with Uruk. You’re going to be looking into the health of the vampires here and ensuring that you understand how blood intake and whatnot works?”

“I will be,” Hakuno offered, settling onto Gilgamesh’s lap as he pulled her in. She sipped at her drink as she settled in, leaning against his chest. “I thought it might be a good idea, since I don’t really know much about vampires in general.”

Ozymandias nodded, wrapping an arm around Nefertari. “Your interest in Gilgamesh has been spread slowly through the media outlets. I’m sure you have already been told that several of the investors and groups that Gilgamesh has founded have expressed interest In meeting you.”

“I haven’t. We haven’t really discussed too much yet.”

The man nodded, “Of course. You must be caught up in your opportunity to enjoy having Gilgamesh back.”

She could feel Gilgamesh’s arm behind her, at the base of her back. Sipping at her glass, Hakuno took a moment.

“It is a slow process, having your significant other back,” Gilgamesh offered.

“What are your thoughts on the matter, Hakuno?” Ozymandias leaned forward a bit, shifting in his seat. “I have seen these two both at your sides and I have seen much… management. However, I have not heard you truly speak your mind.”

“You haven’t,” she gave.

“Ramses,” Nefertari pat his arm gently. “Don’t push them. I think it’s nice that they’re giving her time to process.”

“Is that what you are going through? I am not naïve,” Ozymandias argued. “I sense that we are not being given the entire painting.”

“Picture,” Nefertari murmured.

“Painting, picture; thank you, Nefertari.” The man kissed her cheek. “I am not good with this language still.”

“I know. I am here to help. You’ll get better in time,” she replied softly.

Glancing Enkidu’s way, she could see they had stopped. Gilgamesh was so still as well. The two were both waiting, holding their breath. She leaned her head back towards Gilgamesh a little, noting that the crease was returning to his expression.

“Gilgamesh is… frustrating.” Hakuno told the duo. “He assumes too much. He touches when I am unfamiliar with him still. He and Enkidu have not left me alone for more than a moment. I don’t know much here. I don’t know anything about vampires. I don’t even know how it’s possible for vampires to exist.”

Oh, the crease was deepening. She had to marvel a bit at the look of it.

She could sense his face tinting with the slightest bit of embarrassment. Enkidu hadn’t been joking about him being a person of appearances.

_Hakuno, don’t… don’t do this to me. Open your eyes. Yell at me. Hakuno. Hakuno, don’t you dare do this to me! To Enkidu!_

“Nefertari,” Hakuno looked over at the girl. “Do you, by any chance, remember when you died?”

The woman frowned, arms wrapping around her as Ozymandias stared at her in bemusement. “Um… No. I don’t. I remember my life. I remember holding my son and mourning when my first born died. I remember Ramses, but… I don’t remember dying.”

“That was the first thing I remembered,” Hakuno replied. “I remember feeling so much pain and being held onto. I remember the person who was holding me yelling at me, telling me not to dare leave him. I remember thinking about how much I didn’t want to die. I wanted to be alive again. I wanted to find a way to heal myself. I wanted to live a little longer.”

The arms around her tightened.

She looked down at those arms, turning her gaze to the man. “I’ll be honest with you, Ozymandias- Ramses. Whatever you call yourself. I can’t say that I am tripping over my own feet when it comes to King Gilgamesh. I just know how I felt when I was dying. I know I didn’t want to die and leave this man alone. Even if he did have his friend at his side. I grew up this time around becoming someone who could heal others, to let them live a little longer as well.”

“You remembered that memory that long?” Nefertari stared at her in wonder. “It took me a few months with Ramses bringing me blooms and taking me to where our home had once stood for me to remember.”

“I have had the memory since I was little,” Hakuno replied. “I have the memory pop back up a lot actually.”

Ozymandias closed his eyes, going silent for a moment.

And then-

He laughed, the sound echoing off the walls.

“You are lucky, Gilgamesh! Hakuno is just as you had hoped! You shall be in for quite the spirited time!”

The blond simply smiled, shutting his own eyes. A soft snicker escaped him, that crease still in place. “You and your young naivety. You and your woman are too similar for your own good. Hakuno and I are seeing eye to eye on many things.”

What had Enkidu said to do with this man? Oh yes.

Hakuno sipped at her drink, debating over how to get the kitchens cleaned. Surely there were staff members who cleaned this place. They would need to be summoned to work on cleaning up the kitchens. With that cleaned, she could finally enjoy a few meals, maybe indulge in purchasing sweets from the city.

Gods, but she made it sound like she was staying. What a strange thing to be thinking.

Then again, she could hardly go out into the sunlight without Gilgamesh’s lotion.

“As one would expect of the original king of night!”

“One must give proper appreciation for their second hand being. It is through the efforts of one without flaw that we are to this point.”

Enkidu rolled their eyes as Ozymandias laughed harder.

“Indeed. Indeed! You are too kind!”

“I only give appreciation as is needed.”

The two were both laughing.

Hakuno glanced towards the clay being again. Did they not understand the misunderstanding happening? Gilgamesh was clearly meaning Enkidu. Ozymandias was clearly thinking they were talking about them.

“Should we have dinner?” Nefertari looked around at them all. “I think it’d be nice to wander into the city and have something to eat.”

“We shall dine like kings once again!”

“I will show you what a real feast looks like, Ramses!”

They were getting so excited about this. The duo stood up, Gilgamesh’s arms holding her close as Ozymandias simply held his woman’s hand in his own and simply beamed in her direction. Warmth and admiration poured from his every angle, Nefertari simply returning his happiness with a look of happiness herself.

“Come along, Enkidu,” Gilgamesh told the being, leading the way. Hakuno could feel Gilgamesh’s hands tightening a bit as they went along. Her hands held onto his shoulders as they went.

They dined.

Or rather, blood had been poured into glasses by a handful of servants lined amongst the wall. The glass she had been using before was taken, replaced with one of finer glass. Hakuno looked over at the servants quietly, watching the area as Gilgamesh distracted the man Ozymandias with conversation about Arthur and Vlad.

“They are insistent. I get no time to play with what is mine,” he complained.

“They are quite adamant on seeing her for themselves. You have forbid any talk of her. You should not be surprised by their intrigue.”

“I would be more impressed with their absence.”

“We must prepare to reopen Uruk. Humans will become inquisitive if you keep the walls up for too long. You know that they fret for anything that is beyond their understanding. Even if the silence is for their own protection, they lack the proper respect for those in authority.”

Gilgamesh waved the man off. “I have better things to do than think of mongrels.”

Ozymandias laughed, nodding. “You and Hakuno must visit me after this. We shall spend time enjoying the Nile from the windows and the warmth of home. I imagine that Nefertari and Hakuno could find lots of things to enjoy doing together.”

Hakuno bit her tongue from telling the pharaoh to keep his ideas to himself. She still was unsure about staying here.

She could feel Gilgamesh’s hand reaching for hers beneath the table as she sipped from her glass. Her eyes drifted to his as Gilgamesh yawned. “I do not care for Cairo. Too crowded. Too much dry heat. Uruk’s humidity and morning breezes are like that of Hakuno’s,” he paused, closing his eyes in a knowing manner. “You can understand when your homeland treats you like that of a smitten lover. I have no desire to ruin this valuable time with too much company or distraction. Your work on continuing the publications and the information to the public at large is admirable.”

Ozymandias’ laugh seemed to grow louder at the compliments, his nodding vigorous. “We will ensure you both get your time. Just recall you did not give me the longest time-“

“You had two years,” Gilgamesh replied smoothly.

“Would you like a reminder on how much time we have been in this world? What is two years compared to the life of gods?”

The man nodded, the obvious acceptance of those words apparent enough.

“Perhaps there can be time when Gilgamesh must step back from the light. This could be a good opportunity. Marriage and then a wish for a private life,” Enkidu offered. “Many celebrities often do the same thing.”

“The public may ask questions. They become nostalgic at times. Their world makes this one smaller and smaller with each passing year.”

Enkidu nodded.

“Nefertari, do you do anything for fun?” Hakuno turned away from the kings, turning her attention to the woman instead.

“I have been becoming better at gardening,” Nefertari offered.

“So roses and tulips and things?”

“Those are nice too,” she agreed, “but I’ve been growing other things lately. Tansy, blood flowers, wild quinine…” She drifted off with those three, smiling a little.

“Are they common bouquet flowers?”

Enkidu leaned in as the two kings laughed again. “She listed blooms that are used for healing purposes. She became worried when Ozymandias received a cold and has been growing medicinal herbs in her gardens for the past fifty years. She has become quite talented at treating anything she perceives may become a cold.”

“Enkidu is right.” Nefertari smiled. “I will never have Ozymandias lose me again. Nor I him. Wild Quinine is great for most poultices, tansy is used for any kind of repellent from bugs and works to treat worms. I have seen a few citizens visit the palace that possessed such a problem and they returned to our region exclaiming that after the tea we gave them, they felt better than they had in weeks.”

“My Nefertari is my healer, my miracle worker.” Ozymandias beamed.

“Hakuno has become quite talented in that regard,” Gilgamesh all but purred, glancing over at the pharaoh. “She was amongst the high ranking doctors of this world, traveling into the dangers of quarantine zones in order to heal those who had been abandoned by the gods.”

Nefertari leaned forward a little. “I was actually hoping that maybe you could recommend other herbs and things I could grow.”

“I don’t really do gardening. I handle other things.”

She studied compounds and other factors that could be used in making vaccines. Testing different strains against her creations, she created treatments. It wasn’t with herbs and old fashioned old world medicine.

Nefertari shook her head. “I will have you come visit. You can see the gardens and I can show you some of what I have. I think you’d like it.”

She couldn’t do anything other than agree, nodding as she sipped at her drink again. It wasn’t really a dinner at all. There was more conversing, Enkidu taking over the conversation to talk about the greenhouses that Nefertari had in place. Ozymandias and Gilgamesh had gone back to their self-compliments, treating each as a compliment from the other. The two seemed to only grow louder and louder as the night wore on.

Conversation turned for Enkidu and Nefertari. The woman asked about the palace, Enkidu guided her into a conversation about her last few gifts and renovations inspired by her or Ozymandias’ latest interests. She inquired about the plans for the wedding, Enkidu got her into talking about her own wedding that she had in a time a while back. From the sounds of it, she had been alive for a long time.

The being was talented. There was no doubt about that.

The more she listened, the more apparent it was that the being had a knack for dealing with people. Whatever immunity she held from that silver tongue, she was grateful. The more Nefertari tried, the more she seemed to slip into the other conversations.

Hakuno found herself leaning against the blond king, holding her glass close, lest the servants fill it again. An arm wrapped around her shoulder as the two kings stopped their obnoxious conversations.

“We have no doubt entertained our women long enough,” Ozymandias laughed. “I do believe we have exhausted them.”

Nefertari yawned softly, nodding.

Gilgamesh simply pulled Hakuno in closer. Hakuno could feel him press his lips to her neck softly.

_“I think I’ve had enough of the politics,” Hakuno murmured up to the king, watching the crease come to his forehead as the other advisors pestered him further on crop disputes._

_“My queen consort is fatigued with this talk,” Gilgamesh gleefully informed the men, gesturing them off. “I would like an heir before the end of this year. Leave us.”_

_They scurried off, leaving Gilgamesh smirking as his arms pulled her in more, kissing along her shoulder. She could feel the tension seeping out of his body, his smile obvious against her skin._

_He had wanted them gone._

_There was no doubt about that. He had wanted to make them disappear and he had wanted to indulge and be spoiled. A newly wed king with his bride, there was no doubt he was enjoying all of the attentions and being the only thing in her sights. She didn’t mind that, of course. Even if she were blind, she knew she would be drawn to him. Her hands would have traced his body, noting his great splendor. She would have been enamored in any form and any way possible._

_And she was enamored and beguiled._

_“You weren’t listening to them,” Hakuno accused._

_“I was listening to enough,” Gilgamesh replied. “However, my mind did have other priorities. I noted you did not seem to mingle in the midst of much conversation.”_

_“I don’t have much of a talent for it,” Hakuno told him. “Enkidu is better at being coy and practical. I seem to only want to speak the truth and I talk too much.”_

_“You merely need to turn your tongue to me.” The man’s eyes gleamed. “Enkidu and I can speak on your behalf enough. You can simply entertain and surprise me at every turn. You have a talent for that.”_

Gilgamesh was looking at her as Hakuno shook her head. Her gaze flickered away, trying to make sense of this.

Another memory.

“I should take Hakuno and Enkidu and rest.” Gilgamesh replied.

“You do not wish to speak further?”

“Two years,” Gilgamesh reminded him. “You had two years. Allow me my peace, pharaoh.”

The man simply laughed, stealing away Nefertari as he stood up and swept her from her feet. The woman laughed softly, her lips pressing to his cheek. “Take your people to their chambers. We may speak amongst the dark hours of this night on our own.”

Enkidu’s taking over of the visiting duo’s conversation gave them the opportunity to slip away. Hakuno’s eyes drifted to the servants once more and she paused, noting the veins showing on one of the servant’s neck.

“Keep your eyes on me,” Gilgamesh murmured.

One of the servants was showing signs of the sickness Enkidu had spoken of.


	8. Dancing with the Lion

That man was sick

Sick and in the same room as Enkidu and Nefertari and Ozymandias. 

Hakuno couldn’t help but to argue against the man holding her, leading her away. Wasn’t this against everything she stood for as a physician? Gods, they could all be affected by the problem. If that man pricked his finger or he coughed or-

“Gilgamesh, we have to-“

“Hakuno, stop.” 

“He’s-“

“They all are.” 

Hakuno froze, staring up at him. 

Had he just said… They were all…

Gilgamesh looked around a little, leading her away from the room. “They’re all showing signs in one way or another. Sometimes the symptoms disappear. That particular servant’s has become worse. Tonight is his last night serving. I imagine he will be dead by dawn. None of the servants last long once they’re showing those symptoms. Enkidu took the last one home and came back with no symptoms.” 

“Enkidu took- You let your friend touch an infected?! Without-“

“They went without my knowledge. Besides, they are not quite human to begin with.” 

Hakuno turned, glaring at him. “I want that man in the lab you’re making me. We need to get a sample while he is still alive and functioning. I want samples from the others too. There might be something we can see in their blood. I will need saliva samples and stool samples.” 

“You want stool samples?” 

“Poop. I want their poop.” 

The man wrinkled his nose, shaking his head. “We will have to wait until Ozymandias and Nefertari-“

“You want to wait when-“

“Remember you are supposed to be listening to me. We are trying to show that you are not a threat to anyone right now.” 

“YOU ARE A THREAT! THIS PLAGUE-“

He covered her mouth before she could continue, eyes wide and jaw clenched. “Hakuno! They will hear you.” 

She bit him. Earning a growl before his hands were around her waist, hoisting her up. 

“OZYMANDIAS!” 

“Damn it, Hakuno.” 

“ENKIDU! ENKIDU!” 

“Hakuno, as your husband and your master, shut up for five minutes and let me lead!” 

She wasn’t even his damn husband. Hakuno reached down, pushing to get free from his grasp. She could pop over his shoulder and get them out of that room. 

The door was opening. Hakuno grinned in response, noting the green hair. Enkidu looked over at them as Gilgamesh held the door at the other end of the room. 

“…Please keep your voice down, Hakuno. The other two thought they heard you calling for them.” The being smiled softly, pressing a finger to their lips before moving back into the other room. “She is caught up in the arms of her king! Let me show you the gardens.” 

“It wasn’t even a real dinner,” Hakuno growled. 

“We can’t even eat, Hakuno. It’s a pointless gesture.” Gilgamesh moved through the doors, carrying her down the hall. “I’ll get your damn poop if it’s that important to you. Mongrel shit. Of all the damn things.” 

“The three of them could be infected. We could be infected.” 

Gilgamesh set her in one of the seats in the hall, bending down in front of her and resting his hands on her lap. 

“This is supposed to be about you and I.” 

“This is about sick people needing my help.” 

“You can do that too.” 

Hakuno felt her head throb at the very audacity. She was doing what she could, but these people needed help and she wasn’t helping when she was playing nice with him. Instead they were getting worse. That man was going to die. They needed to be working. 

“We agreed to me working with you during the night and me working with you in the mornings.” 

“Technically it is after midnight. It’s morning,” Hakuno pointed out. Or, she was pretty sure it was morning. The bells had chimed only once during dinner, making her think that it was one in the morning. 

“I say morning meaning after the sun is rising.” 

“When do the others arrive?” Hakuno asked. 

“Most likely in the evening.” 

Which meant they wouldn’t be able to hide away for long. The news of the plague would become apparent. The others would realize that there was a disease and there was a good reason that there was a border around the city, not just as a method of drawing her to him. 

“Your face is becoming pale. You didn’t drink much this evening.” Gilgamesh pulled at his shirt, exposing his neck. 

“God no.” Hakuno turned her face away, but she was being yanked into his lap, the man settling for sitting right there on the floor with her in his arms. 

“Drink.” 

“I’m not drinking from you. I don’t know where the hell you’ve been and drinking blood is-“

“Hakuno, you need blood. You will need blood from your master from time to time. If you do not drink from your master, you will become tired and die. Then everyone will die alongside you.” 

“I had blood earlier…”

His lips were moving along her neck, hand burying in her hair. “Stop fighting me. Take a moment. Breathe. Stop thinking like a mortal and think for a moment like me.” 

“Ah, yes. Think like you. ‘Gilgamesh is such a vixen, drinks from my neck all the time and practically spends most his time naked, begging for me’,” she mimicked. 

He pinched her. “Your lip isn’t needed here.” 

“I’m not drinking from you.” 

“Hakuno,” his voice grew soft, one hand still holding her head close to his neck. “Drink from me for now, if only to give you the strength to save those who you are fighting me so hard to save. Drink from me because you are frustrated with me and insist on living long enough to win against me in one of our arguments.” 

“I have won arguments.” 

The man’s hand in her hair was massaging her scalp. He was cradling her in his arms. The more she found herself waiting for more of his persuasion, the more she found herself gravitating towards him. She pressed her lips to his skin lightly. Her eyes drifted towards him, thinking quietly. 

She bit higher than before, high enough that he made a noise. 

The warmth hit her lips, her eyes closed softly as she tasted him. 

“You were remembering something before,” Gilgamesh murmured. “I have not had you long, but when we were with the other two, you were remembering something. Something about our life together, if I may guess.” That hand tightened against her. “…How long will it take for us to be how we were, Hakuno?” 

His blood was so warm, so fine. Drinking from him was like drinking from the finest of wines. The smoothest and sweetest of drinks, the kind that made the head light and the tongue looser. She leaned against him, tamed for the moment as she tried to gather her thoughts. 

She had been arguing. 

Yes, she had been arguing with him, but now she didn’t want to. 

“I remembered when we were newlyweds,” she replied. “You were sending the advisors and guards from the room so you could be entertained. You got bored.” 

Gilgamesh nodded, “I was always bored when they forced me to focus on things other than what I deemed important.” 

“I still need samples from the servants. I need to get started on finding what the problem is that’s causing all of this.” 

The man pressed a hand to his neck, wincing a little at the bitemark. “Claiming me?” 

“You told me to drink from you.” 

“And you were at a point before where you would have left a mark easily hidden.” The man was smirking, leaning back a little more. “You wanted to mark me.” 

“Fine.” Hakuno turned her gaze away, finding him clicking his tongue, he turned her face back to him. 

“No no, look at me when you declare your intentions of wanting to mark me. I don’t mind. Say, ‘No one else is allowed to bite you, Gilgamesh. You are mine.’ I don’t mind. I find it endearing. The young doctor wants to claim her wise and enigmatic king vampire.” 

Hakuno sighed. “I don’t think I should be here with you and your ego. The two of you seem very intimate.” 

“Excuse-“

“Stool samples.” Hakuno stood up, turning away from the man. “Enkidu showed me where the room is that you all store blood in. I’ll get some samples from there since it’s blood you’ve ensured is safe. When you have blood and the other samples I requested, you can meet me there.” 

“Haku-“

A servant moved into the hallway, looking over at them. 

“M-my lady. My king….”

Excellent. One of the servants from the dining area. 

“Gilgamesh and I need you to gather the other servants,” Hakuno told him, moving towards him. “We’re going to need you all to bring a bottle of water for each of you and be prepar-“

Gilgamesh’s arms were around her waist, yanking her back before she could reach him. The man lunged forward, landing flat on the carpet before Gilgamesh was grabbing one of the weapons from the walls. The sword was swung, landing flat against his back. Another weapon, an a-

“Gilgamesh!” 

It swung. Blood was pooling out on the floor. 

She was going to be sick. 

“Breathe,” the man murmured, his arm wrapping around her waist again. “Through the mouth. Breathe through the mouth, Hakuno. You’ll get passed it. I told you he was going to die before dawn.” 

“That wasn’t…”

God, this servant had been standing near the other one. 

“They lose their minds once their veins start showing. They tend to become frenzied, attacking people. Enkidu has taken care of the last three.” 

“He just-“

The man had just lunged at them. 

“As I said,” Gilgamesh looked down at the body. “The servants are getting concerned and I have seen symptoms in each of them, although not to the extent that I saw in this servant. His veins were showing and he was twitching.” 

“Twitching?” 

“You could see it. Legs mostly. His arms were twitching a bit though.” 

Hakuno moved from his side, taking a moment to take a breath before she was moving to the body. She moved around the axe, looking closer at his eyes. They were sunken in a little. 

Dehydration? 

“Has he been drinking a lot?” 

“Hakuno, I do not speak to the staff unless I need things.” 

That was going to need to change. 

Hakuno moved back to his side, feeling her stomach churning a little again. She needed away from the body for a minute. Too much death already. 

“Do you want more to drink?” 

“I don’t think I can drink blood right now,” Hakuno argued. “There was another servant. He had veins showing earlier.” 

Gilgamesh paused. 

“Do you see what I mean? We need to tell the others. If he’s near-“

“Enkidu will take care of them. He’s taking them to the gardens.” 

Hakuno paused as the man moved to grab the axe and sword from the body, offering the sword to her. She stared at him. 

“Hakuno-“

“You’re handing a doctor a weapon.” 

“Consider it a medical euthanizing.” The man held out the weapon a bit more. 

This was insane. 

Her mind flickered back to the man lunging at her. One bite, one moment of drooling on her…

Her hand wrapped around the sword’s hilt, mind screaming as Gilgamesh took her hand and they hurried back the way they had come. 

Insanity had sunk in. She was running with a weapon heavier than expected, barely able to keep her grip. The man holding her hand was holding an axe the size of his person. 

Her eyes flickered around the main room, pausing at the bodies. 

So many bodies…

Gilgamesh grimaced. 

“What-“

“They’re dead. We left a body like these out for you to find the other day. If I understand correctly, you wanted samples from it.” He was talking about the body she had stopped the car for at the outskirts of Uruk. Then these bodies were drained of blood too. 

“How many were killed this way?” 

“Inconvenient,” Gilgamesh growled. “Just when I was getting somewhere.” 

They paused as the dining room doors opened. Two of the servants barreled out of the room. She could see it now. They were panting, both showing veins in their necks. Both of them had their eyes sunken in. 

“Shit.” 

Gilgamesh was groaning. “You would think of something as mundane as your shit samples at a time like this.” He drew back his arm before he was in motion. Blood went flying, the axe swinging straight in his hands. The weight, if anything like this sword in her hands, was phenomenal. The speed at which he swung, combined with that was enough to slam deep into the servants. 

There was no other way to describe it. His body moved like it had been born to do just that, striking down the opposition. He pounced upon the other man, following after his blade to ensure the other was vanquished. Even as he moved, those eyes were still aware of it all. She could sense him staying alert to the other.

The other lunged at him. 

“Sword!” 

She threw it towards him immediate, letting it sing through the air. Those eyes locked with hers for a second, but she could see everything in that moment. His hand wrapped around the hilt of the blade, slamming into the other servant and throwing him to the ground. 

Both blades twisted in the bodies. 

They stopped moving. 

“Nefertari!” Hakuno moved towards the dining hall, trying the door and finding it locked. 

She glanced back at the blond slowly entering the room. His eyes went to the door before he sighed in relief. “Enkidu locked them in the gardens nearby. Far enough from the bloodshed but close enough to not be suspected.” 

“We just… They’re…”

Gilgamesh moved forward, reaching for her before he paused. His eyes drifted to his hands. 

Hakuno stared at him before realizing. 

“…We need to get you bathed. I need to take a sample of blood from you as well.” 

He was still looking at the blood on his hands. The wrinkle in his brow was still there. 

The man had saved her. There was no getting around that fact. Gilgamesh had taken the opportunity to strike them down before they could get the two of them. 

“I swear if they’re zombies or something.” Hakuno moved forward, wrapping her hand around his and pulling him along. 

“You’re exposing yourself-“

“I was exposed the moment they were in the room with us.” Hakuno replied, pulling him along the hallways. A handful of servants peeked out from another room off the main one, glancing at them. 

“There are bodies to clean,” Gilgamesh demanded. “I want the rooms and hallway cleared and bleached before Enkidu finishes with our guests! Not a word on what took place! The first to speak is the first to follow in the bodies' wake!” 

They bowed, scrambling at their king’s demand. 

Hakuno shook her head. He needed to just tell the others, but that was not here nor there. He needed cleaned first. She led the man to one of the guest rooms near the entrance hall. 

“You’ll need to undress.” Hakuno told him, releasing his hands and looking around. 

“You have blood on you as well,” he noted. 

She glanced at her skirts, sighing. 

Her shirt was off first, the skirts falling around her feet. She was starting the shower when she heard him removing the jewelry from his person. The ring on her hand glinted brightly under the lights, making her slow a moment. 

He had rescued her, in his own way. 

Above all else, she had to give him that. When it had come down to it, he had stopped all argument and pulled her to safety. 

“We’ll need it hot. Something about clearing pores and cleansing the skin?” 

“Right. We’ll need to scrub down well. Just to be safe. The more contact with that blood, the more exposed we are, unless it's ruled out in my research.” Hakuno turned, finding the man close. Red tattoos littered his torso. 

Those red eyes glanced down at her. 

“Is there a problem?” He asked. 

“It’s nothing.” 

The man smirked a little, but he lightly tapped her towards the shower. 

She found herself under his ministrations, his hands going to the soap as soon as they were inside. A part of her had expected something, a comment, a gesture…

Instead she found him scrubbing her down the moment they entered the shower area, refusing to let her do the same for him. The water had turned clear once more before she could get close. 

“Blood samples next?” He asked, leaning against her person. 

Hakuno nodded. Her fingers laced with his. “Just to be safe.”


	9. The King of Knights

In light of the insanity, she was fond of the man’s robes. Thick, plush red robes, adorned with a finely threaded design so tightly sewn on that it seemed as though the fabric itself had been put together with the design naturally adorning it. The thickness removed any chill she felt in the lower area of the palace, her place at the side of a very nice fireplace.

The man wasn’t wasting time, receiving the samples she had required. 

“We should tell Ozymandias and Nefertari.” 

“Absolutely not.” 

“They should know,” Hakuno argued, her hands tight against the fabric of the cloak. “Gilgamesh, if they become infected or we have something happen to us,” but her words faltered. The man leaned in close, cupping her face in his hands. 

“You push and push, but you need to think about this from a better point of view. If we tell them of this, then everyone in this city, including Enkidu, myself, and you, are all going to die. They are acquaintances, not friends, Hakuno. They want to ensure survival and the best way to ensure that as someone not associated with another land is a quick and careful slaughtering of the masses.” 

She whimpered, unable to help herself. 

The point was to save people. Save them, not kill them. While she had a chance at making Nefertari see reason…

Well, no. The damn king’s voice was echoing in her head now, already countering that. Nefertari would become worried and go to Ozymandias. Ozymandias would do what would need to be done in order to protect Nefertari. That meant death. 

“You don’t like me being right.” 

“I don’t,” she agreed, looking up at him. 

“I at least have us agreeing on something finally.” The man had settled her into the seat by the fire, motioning for her to stay. “I must go check on Enkidu and the others. When I return, we will talk.” 

All they did was talk. Circle after circle around one another. We will do this then, but this is happening so we must do this. Don’t do this. Don’t do that. Do this. Do that. 

But the man was already out of the room, leaving her to look around the place and think. 

She was so tired of thinking. So damn tired. 

She closed her eyes for a time, enjoying the fireplace and the warm cloak that had to belong to the king. A childish impulse had her picking at the thread, to no avail in the end. The splendid fabric was as perfect and radiant as the king himself. 

With that out of the way, she found herself roaming the new room, taking in the fabrics and tapestries. They were rich in colors and textures, but worn out. Aged, no doubt. They didn’t seem very Sumerian, upon her inspection. They looked more Romanian in nature. The whole room seemed to give a Count Dracula kind of vibe, now that she was looking around. 

Dark furniture, worn tapestries, roaring fire, stone walls; well, that and a vampire standing in the room helped quite a bit. 

Her attention went to one of the rather Medieval tapestries in the corner when she heard the door open. Her hands lightly went to touch it when she caught sight of a flash of blond out of the corner of her eye. 

“I have to confess, I keep thinking I’m going to wake up. There’s just too much to all this.” Hakuno turned to look at the man and paused. 

“Good evening. You must be the Hakuno that I’ve heard so much about.” 

The man was shorter than Gilgamesh, his hair much messier although his smile was more genuine. Those green eyes just seemed to glint as he introduced himself, giving a bit of a chivalric bow as he spoke. 

“I am King Arthur, although Arthur is fine. I don’t rule over much at this point. A handful of knights and a crumbling castle.” 

“King Arthur?” 

He nodded, still smiling a little at her. 

“King of Camelot. The king who had all those tales of knights and valor and-“

“And witches and fighting great battles, that would be me, unfortunately.” He wrinkled his nose a little, “I swear Merlin got a bit preoccupied with the whole memory of me. The magician is quite ridiculous sometimes, but he’s a good person. I think you’ll like him.” 

“Merlin’s alive?” 

“I mean, we’re alive so I imagine in the same capacity we can call him alive. Otherwise, I suppose we’re all dead, aren’t we?” 

“So does that mean that Guinevere is-“

“Ah, no.” Arthur shook his head. “Marriage of convenience more than anything. I did care for her quite a bit though. She was a wonderful companion when we had our time together. And after that,” he trailed off a bit, glancing towards the door, “I’m sure Gilgamesh had informed you about me.” 

“Just that he made you a vampire one time that he woke up.” 

“After, my death,” the king of knights offered, “Merlin went to Gilgamesh. The man and his green haired companion were traveling through Britain and had stumbled upon our court. Anyway, when Merlin found him, they made a deal and Gilgamesh offered some of his own blood to me. And then I became a wanderer. I went to the holy lands and abroad across the great ocean. I met people, but people never really met me. I began to do restorations with my knights, since they were also spared death, and then that led to other businesses.” 

“That’s not as exciting as Camelot.” 

“Not as dangerous either,” the man replied. His eyes went to the tapestry. “Your husband has no idea how to handle the preservation of tapestries. But I know he also knows nothing about this kind of material. Too much to see, too much to do. And those long naps of his out of his own boredom don’t really give him time, I suppose.” 

“Gilgamesh isn’t my husband,” Hakuno told him. 

“Hmm? Oh,” Arthur laughed a little. “Forgive me, I had assumed you two had already agreed on that. I’m not sure where you are at with becoming accustomed to the palace, but if you’d like, I have spent a good amount of time here.” 

“I was going to wait here for Gilgamesh.” 

Arthur nodded. “Have you been simply staring at the tapestries then?” 

“And napping.” 

“That doesn’t sound particularly interesting.” 

It wasn’t, but she needed the time to think. Going out into the hallways meant she may encounter another guard giving in to disease or risk doing something that she’d regret later. It meant possibly becoming lost and having to listen to the king lecture her about not following his instructions. 

“Do you have something that requires your attention soon?” 

He sounded disappointed. 

Gilgamesh had asked her not to share the news of the plague though. Sensibly, he’d asked her to keep quiet about these things happening until they could resolve the issues. 

And then, on top of that, Enkidu had been big on distraction and filibuster. Keep them entertained, keep them busy; then they couldn’t find out about what was happening and they could resolve the problems before they were brought to light. She wasn’t going to be able to look at her samples until Gilgamesh returned and they finally had their upcoming ‘talk’. 

“Hakuno?” 

“I suppose… as long as we don’t leave the palace,” Hakuno replied slowly. Surely the king would understand, given he had saved this man himself. 

“Come away with me then, little newbie. Let me show you the palace then.” 

It was hard not to smile back at him when he flashed another of those smiles her way. Her arm went around his, following his lead as he led her from the room. 

“I do have to apologize, as a bit of a disclaimer.” 

“About?” 

Arthur shook his head. “These two that you are with, they’re complete idiots who have no idea how to handle a kitchen. I kept it up when I was here last, but it’s been a couple months and I’m afraid…”

Hakuno shuddered. “I saw it. Oh my god, I saw it. The food’s grown sentience.” 

Arthur laughed at her. “That bad?” 

“I got the most ridiculous response when I was looking at the kitchen and becoming horrified!” Hakuno shook her head, still remembering the disbelief at such a state of a kitchen. “They have this whole place up to standards and their kitchen looks like it was abandoned in the Cold War!” 

He was laughing harder, nodding. “You should be glad they even have one. I came here when they woke up and spent five years teaching them. You know how well Gilgamesh can stand to be taught anything.” 

“I do. I do.” 

“’I don’t need this nonsense! Just tell me the important things I missed!’ ‘Why do I need this phone device?’ ‘Why is this fabric so thin? Have we lost all resources for proper clothing?’” The man shook his head, navigating through the hall with her on his arm. “I felt very bad for you, knowing you’d have to come to meet him and he couldn’t even pick up a phone. He broke eight of them.” 

“How do you-“

“The man assumed one was waterproof. He became outraged at another dying on him and threw it into his fountains. Another fell off the palace I’m told.” So he probably smashed it. “The others I have no idea. I just kept imagining this rather tall baby throwing tantrums every time he called me. There were so many cell phone lives lost in the rages of Gilgamesh. I have many poems on the matter.” 

“I bet you do.” They were probably all hilarious as well. 

The man nodded. “I can’t say I expected you to be so amicable either. I am sorry about that. I had expected you to be a bit more like Enkidu. Quiet, shady, dodging around in the king’s shadow while dressed to nines.” 

“I practice medicine. There’s no dressing nice. I either have blood on my coat, sauce from whatever sandwich I had time to get, or someone’s probably thrown up on me.” 

“Yeah, that would make dressing nice difficult.” 

“I did.” 

They meandered into one of the gardens, with the man pausing near one of the fountains. His gaze was back on her again. “You are dressed nice now.” 

“The clothes are from Gilgamesh.” 

“I figured. The cloak I know too well.” 

She was keeping the cloak. It was too nice, too warm, and too fine to return. She’d bargain her way into being able to keep it. Return for one night a month after this was over maybe. Or perhaps a week every season. Maybe pull a Greek goddess move and come for the winter, since where she lived was much more prone to snow and mud. 

Hakuno looked around at the garden though, noting the crumbling benches and overgrown beds. The sight was a bit surprising, considering what she’d seen of the palace. 

“This is one of the original gardens, I’m told.” Arthur informed her. “Gilgamesh saved this one for last since it’s close to the throne room.” 

Her eyes drifted to a worn out stone nearby. “What’s that?” 

“Ah,” Arthur winced a little as she looked over at him. “You don’t want to know.” 

“I just asked.” 

“It’s near the throne room, Hakuno. You must recall a little bit.” 

She had died in a room with golden walls, but that was about half the palace. Perhaps they had managed to have a child or something? Maybe someone important was memorialized-

Arthur took her hand again, leading her to the rock and motioning at the symbols etched over the worn surface of the stone. “I’m not supposed to come here, but I do anyway. Call me rambunctious. The stone is for the Queen of Uruk. Her body was carried here after she passed, left in her favorite of the gardens so that she would not have to spend a moment amongst mongrels and the unpleasantness of the world.” 

Hakuno looked around again, trying to picture it. 

“To be fair, the whole place is in disarray. Gilgamesh can’t necessarily come here because it upsets him. Enkidu tries, but…”

But it was hard for the being as well, Hakuno nodded. 

“I was hoping you wouldn’t notice. It was supposed to be a way to start with you looking around and going, ‘ah yes. My favorite garden. I grew lilies here and I shoved Gilgamesh into this fountain here’.” Arthur sighed. “I don’t know what all you remember so I was trying.” 

“Thank you.” 

“Of course. Would you like to see another area?” 

“If you don’t mind. Being near my own grave is awkward.” 

Arthur nodded, leading her on. “I live a couple kilometers from mine. I get it.” 

The man was taking her hand, leading her from room to room from there. He showed her the room he had stayed in when he had first been brought to Uruk, pushing the closet out of the way to show depictions of Gilgamesh in the most unflattering of ways. 

“He was bossy,” the king of knights admitted. “I was far nicer than Tristan and Lancelot.” 

They moved to another garden, where the man kicked up a couple sticks and tossed one her way. She found herself swordfighting with him, rolling her eyes for a few minutes before he was egging her into responding more maturely. The stick he held broke, leaving him to roll backwards and swipe up another stick from the ground. 

“I don’t think swords work like that,” she told him, standing on the edge of the fountains and laughing a little at him. 

“Weapons are as plentiful as your flowers, Hakuno. Look at this, I have the most powerful stick in the entire garden.” 

“You don’t-“ 

He struck quickly, knocking her stick from her hands and wiggling his eyebrows. 

The smile she found herself with was unavoidable. The man was nothing more than a kid at heart. “I surrender, good king. Show me more of the palace.” 

“Ah, you’re too easy.” He wrapped an arm around her waist, helping her down from the edge of the fountains and leading her back inside, leaning over her. “But worry not, I value myself to be a gentleman. I will not abuse my knowledge for self-gain.” 

“I’m glad.” 

“I will tease you about it though.” 

Arthur was too easy to get along with. He was such a nice change of pace. Her hand returned to his arm as they began to wander again. 

The knights’ chambers were next, notably on the opposite end of where she and Gilgamesh had slept in the palace. He rattled off the knights, pausing for a moment as he came to Merlin’s room. 

“Now, I know you are new.” 

“You said this was Merlin’s room?” 

“It is. Now, I need you to understand-“

Hakuno slipped around him, opening the door to a field of white. A portal on the other side of the room showed a large tower, surrounded by a field of endless flowers and blooms. 

“Merlin still does magic. A lot of magic. Just- imagine being obsessive about your doctor stuff but being the best at every field of medicine and becoming addicted to the practice. You’ve got Merlin down to a science with that image.” The man hollered, making a head pop out from the tower’s window and a hand wave in their direction. 

“That’s Merlin?” 

“He’s a lot stronger in looks and strength than he is depicted. For some reason, he thinks it’s funny to be seen as some old, knobby legged ancient,” Arthur told her before calling out to the man. “GILGAMESH’S WOMAN SAYS HELLO!” 

A shout came their way, something along the lines of hello, from what little she could gather. 

Arthur pulled her from the room, closing the door. 

“He’s odd. He’s unpredictable. Do not let him sleep in the same room as you.” 

“Why?” 

Arthur bit his lip, amusement in his features despite himself. “Gilgamesh decided to allow it once and we had a solid year of trying to find Merlin after the king pissed him off and Merlin decided to let Gilgamesh become in touch with his feminine side. Female Gilgamesh is far more terrifying than male Gilgamesh, let me tell you.” 

“Oh geez.” 

“I don’t know how he treats you and I do hope you keep my confidence-“

“Your secrets and stories are safe with me,” she promised. 

“Gilgamesh is an asshole. Through and through, the worst. I have only seen him calm and bearable when he’s with Enkidu, when he’s well enough entertained, in battle, and murmuring something about you. That’s literally it. Him as a woman was horrible. Since then, we’ve kept a portal to Avalon in Merlin’s room so he can be easily located.” 

Good to know. Hakuno nodded, returning her arm to his and allowing him to lead her onwards. 

“So do Ozymandias and Nefertari have rooms here?” 

“No. Those two were insistent on Cairo. They have a guest room they share at times, but it’s not officially their room because they never bothered to stay here. Gilgamesh got the pharaoh set up in his own home and that was it. Then when Nefertari was found, he simply let them be. Probably because he woke up for about a decade and then got bored. Went straight back to sleep.” 

“So he just falls asleep when bored.” 

“According to him, yes. I think he just becomes tired of dealing with himself alone. Enkidu requires rest at times and without the clay being, Gilgamesh doesn’t have his company that he wants.” 

“What about the fourth one of you?” 

“Ah, him,” Arthur nodded. “Well, you’ll see him.” 

“I will?” Hakuno looked up at the knight. 

“Vladimir wanted me to give you his regards, but he wished to make a couple stops before coming here. He’s always complained that the king’s home is too gawdy for his tastes and usually attempts to drag décor for the rooms he’s given in with him. It’ll piss off Gilgamesh.” 

“Vladimir as in-“

“Oh, don’t go saying that to him.” The man was already laughing softly, shaking his head. “Please don’t. Nefertari did that to him about fifty years back and he had an aneurism. Wouldn’t speak to her for a good couple decades and kept his conversations with Ozymandias cold and brief.” 

“He realizes that he’s living the legacy, right? He’s technically Count Dracula.” 

“It is a joke you can share and enjoy privately with me, alright?” The man put a finger to his lips, grinning childishly and winking. “We’ll let the man think you have the utmost respect and admiration for him.” 

“I don’t know.” 

The man pulled her hand into his own, pressing his lips to the back of her hand. “Just between us, my lady, let’s just enjoy the laugh and keep it quiet. Wounding the heart of an old man is not particularly of interest to me.” 

“Alright, alright.” Hakuno grinned at him, “we’ll keep it between us.” 

“And what exactly are we keeping secret?” 

The tone was colder than anything she’d heard yet. Hakuno looked behind the king of knights, finding Gilgamesh standing with his arms crossed. 

“Now, my king of heroes, why on earth would you make a lady confess her secrets?”

"You were not expected for a while yet, Arthur." 

"I was visiting Merlin and took the shorter path with Vladimir in tow. He's somewhere around here," the man replied vaguely. Turning, Arthur winked at her before beginning to walk passed the king. “Don’t worry about it. I should let you know though, I admire Hakuno greatly. She has a good grip for a sword and her laugh is quite lovely.” 

The man didn’t move until Arthur was gone. His attention focused on her. 

“Is something wrong?” 

“Exactly what were you and the king of knights doing amongst the guest bedrooms, Hakuno?” 

“He was showing me rooms.” 

The man moved forward and adjusted her blouse beneath the cloak. “You will not keep secrets from me, Hakuno. I will not allow it.” 


	10. The Investigation

“He told me you have Count Dracula coming to visit and that I shouldn’t reference anything to do with the fictional character.”

There. 

She wouldn’t even bother to address the damn jealousy that seemed to be sweeping through him. He wanted to know what the king of Arthurian legends was keeping her confidence about? Fine. 

There it was. 

The man was staring at her, surprised by the random alternative to ‘I slept with King Arthur’ and the point blankness to her statement. Because she hadn’t done _anything_ that would merit this kind of reaction from him. 

Arthur had found her. 

He’d taken her on a tour. 

That was it. That was all. The man was overreacting. 

Although she was heavily tempted to tell him where he could shove that jealousy. She was tempted to tell him a lot of shit right now, with him copping that attitude and making her once again unintentionally insult Vlad the Impaler. 

“He called Vlad that?” The king finally asked. 

“I did.” 

The man before her snickered a little, tension leaving him before she found herself looking up at an amused expression. His eyes just gleamed with brewing trouble. His little eyebrow wrinkle was once more gracing her with its presence. 

“He will not enjoy hearing that he is being compared to his one-time guest,” the man purred, pulling her in a little closer. “He is still quite upset about that. He invited a man to visit and the man left to write horrors of him. Vlad is lucky that King Arthur and Ozymandias were so willing to assist with retrieving the original tale.” 

“The original?” 

“They left a few pages in a barn that were found, but we’ve recovered most of the document.” 

Hakuno reached up, running her hand over the man’s forehead. Somehow it almost felt wrong for him to sport such a wrinkle. 

“Hakuno.” 

She felt him grab her hand, stopping her from continuing to mess with him. 

“…The two of you merely discussed Vladimir then?” 

“We talked about the knights that Arthur has and his magician too.” And they sword fought… And talked about how Gilgamesh could be a dick. 

“What was he talking about when he mentioned swords?” 

She was tempted to merely tell him that the king was reminding her that people were assholes when they wanted to be, but, of course, the person in front of her wasn’t really endearing himself to her either. 

“I may have messed around for a few minutes playing around with a couple sticks and fighting with him. I can now say I’ve almost stabbed King Arthur.” 

“You should have come found me.” 

“You told me to wait.” 

He just looked at her. A point-blank, unspoken ‘and you stand here instead of where I left you’ expression. 

“Could you have Merlin help with finding the source of the problem here?” 

Magic probably trumped plagues. If that was real and it seemed that apparently that was, then the magician should have been able to merely wave his wand and do away with the issues. 

Bearing the magic and what she’d been told in mind, she was actually highly curious what effects the magic seemed to have on Merlin and on those he used magic on. Should it turn out that the effects were little to none, then the gender piece…

Well, he’d make a killing with being able to assist those in need. 

His actions, even to poorer nations, would be a reward in and of itself with protecting the sanctity and happiness of thousands. 

“Merlin refuses to come.” Gilgamesh motioned at his door. “Enkidu went to speak to him, but the magician had boarded up his tower and refused to speak.” 

Shameful. 

“If you had wanted to see the palace, you should have said something,” Gilgamesh told her, wrapping an arm around her now and guiding her along the hallways. “I’ll take you on a tour later.” 

“It wasn’t really that. Arthur was just good company.” 

He didn’t seem to enjoy that statement. 

“How’s Enkidu?” Hakuno asked, changing the subject away from the king of knights for the moment. 

“They are checking the perimeter and kicking out servants whom are deemed to be too far gone. We’re sending them to the edge of the city to be quarantined.” The man glanced towards her, “that is how those kind of people are typically dealt with, isn’t it?” 

She didn’t like how he said that. 

Holding onto his arm, she simply focused on getting to wherever he was taking her. 

Her lab, apparently, was their destination. Or, it was a start to a lab. The science equipment was no doubt from a nearby school and the bloodwork equipment was probably from a hospital. There were signs of wear and tear, indicators of the equipment being moved around and some of it no doubt being in the hands of kids that didn’t know how to handle it. 

The blood was normal. 

The other samples she’d requested seemed normal. 

“Hakuno.” 

She really needed to simply ignore him. There was work to be done. For whatever reason, the king had decided to give her a reprieve and let her work. 

Actually work. 

She wasn’t going to entertain him right now. 

She glanced at the blood samples beneath the microscope. Honestly, she wasn’t sure what she was hoping to see, but it was a red splotch. There wasn’t really any signs of pests or strangeness to the blood. 

“I need to run another blood panel,” Hakuno murmured. 

“What for? Did you find something?” 

She shook her head at the man. 

There was nothing. 

There was a plague. They didn’t willy nilly close an entire city off and bar people from coming so effectively without reason. The organization that she worked with would have needed some kind of real, substantial evidence to send people in. 

…Unless they weren’t sure about the plague either. 

It would explain why only a small team of doctors were sent in. Even if Gilgamesh and Enkidu had hired them from the organization, there would have been a bigger team sent. There wouldn’t be simply a bought team. It would explain why they were working so closely. 

Considering Gilgamesh as something of a public official, obviously, he could have simply had the people do this themselves and the organization was doing this to open the doors to the city back up. 

There was still the problem of the disease that drove the people to madness…

“Gil, the bodies…” Hakuno glanced over at him. “Is there any way you could bring me a head?” 

Gilgamesh just stared at her. 

“One would be fine.” She could do a biopsy after getting some scans. They no doubt had a CT machine in the city somewhere. 

“You want a diseased head?” 

“Yes.” 

“One of the ones that we end up killing?” 

Hakuno nodded. “Maybe a live person who’s close to the edge? We could take the CT machine to them for the analysis and then compare it to a healthy brain.” Neurological symptoms meant that this problem was related to the head. 

“Do you realize how that sounds?”

What did he mean? She was asking for a head so she could run tests and save lives. One head or one really close to insane person. It wasn’t too much, was it? Even thinking that, her mind went back to him slaughtering the guards that had gone mad. No, she wasn’t asking that much. Maybe it was a cultural thing. She wasn’t the best at those kinds of things. Gilgamesh shook his head. “I’m not taking you to the ill.” 

“I’ll ask Enkidu then.” 

She’d have to go one way or another. Turning away from the king, she began to head for the door. 

A pair of arms wrapped around her. 

“Hakuno, you just blandly asked me for the head of a dead person and to study people that try to kill us. You can understand why I don’t want you near them.” 

The man said it so meaningfully, his eyes almost shoving the distaste down her throat. 

“Gilgamesh…” She shook her head. “I’ve been bit by infected people before. I’ve had to dive into waters that were basically toxin dumps to gather samples. I’ve dug through feces before to look for blood or large objects. Hell, I’ve worked in a hospital setting during a mass shooting from groups rivaling one another. A simple person suffering from severe dementia is not going to make me scared.” 

“I’m not risking you.” 

“How many vampires exist?” 

Gilgamesh paused. 

“How many?” 

“About two-three thousand at present.” 

Damn. Talk about a well kept secret. 

Hakuno leaned closer to the king. “And you’ve lost how many so far?” 

“…more than I’m comfortable with.” 

“Then think about it like this. I have a week with you. I have a week with this. If by the end of the week, I haven’t resolved this, you can lead this case.” 

Although, it would be so much more helpful if she had her team with her on this. Someone to take the reigns and inspire more ideas and thinking. Someone who had often come up with some of these cures. After this was over, she was going to have to think of a way to explain, ‘oh, all my colleagues died because they were trying to save me. Thankfully I’m the reincarnation of the king’s wife so the vampire king just revived me when I was dying.’ 

“We’re not going to do that. There’s too many deals going on as it is.” 

“Fine.” 

“I’m not bringing you a head.” 

“Then I guess I’m going to sit in here until the week’s done? Could you ask someone to bring me blood bags? Maybe Arthur, he was so nice before.” 

His grip tightened on her a little. 

Sore spot. 

It was probably not a good idea to poke a bear too much. 

The king merely shook his head a little, holding her arms before he moved towards the door. “…How best do I bring this body to you?” 

“Hmm?” 

“The head you want?” Gilgamesh waited, scowl still in place. 

“A bag would be fine. Honestly, it can technically wait. I need a CT scan done before I biopsy. I don’t want to ruin the image. That’s the same thing I want to do to a live person with this problem.” 

“Fine.” 

Fine? 

Hakuno frowned a little as he simply left the room. 

Had… Had she won? 

It wasn’t really an argument, but… Alright. 

She nodded a bit as she looked around. 

Blood was normal. They’d be safe for the most part in handling bodies. They still needed to be careful, but there may have been an alternate reasoning for this to be happening. 

Enkidu had described typical symptoms. Bloodshot eyes, collapsing, painful death… No, she probably didn’t need to consider those words. They’d been around conversations about staying. She needed to stay neutral. Aggressive and unresponsive behavior was the two big indicators here. 

Neurological- or brain problems, wouldn’t necessarily be a problem so simply transferred from one person to another. 

What if it had to do with lifestyles? 

But that wouldn’t make sense. They were from various climates. Vlad was a Romanian probably. Rainy, humid weather. Probably interesting winters. Being in the United Kingdom for Arthur would mean definite temperate zone. Different everything. 

Then you had Ozymandias and Gilgamesh in the areas that didn’t fully understand winter. 

Different continents. Different plants and environments. Meeting once in a while wouldn’t necessarily mean that they would contract things from one another. It didn’t mean anything for their people. 

She needed to compare the people to the oh so high ones. 

Nefertari, Enkidu, Ozymandias, Arthur, Vlad, and Gilgamesh; they were all healthy, normal standards. They were a base for understanding what the typical vampire should be feeling. 

The people on the other hand were coming into contact or not getting something that Gilgamesh and the others were getting. 

Blood samples and testing didn’t show deficiencies, so it had to be something related to the environment. An environmental issue causing mental functioning symptoms though? 

Hakuno headed for the door as she continued to try to think. 

For the environment idea, she’d rattled out pest, algae, vitamin and other related deficiencies. She’d thought about the- 

Well, had she considered the environment enough? 

_Damn, I miss Emiya._

Gilgamesh and Enkidu were containing the problem here, but the others weren’t having the issue. 

Something bumped into her as she turned the corner. 

“Sorry.” 

“It’s fine, Hakuno. You’re thinking about the plague.” 

She nodded. “True, true…”

Three steps had her pausing. 

Another second had her looking back at the fluffy, white-haired man. The man simply smiled, bowing his head politely as she stared at him. 

“Ah, you are functioning once more. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Merlin. I am-“

“You’re the magician.” 

“You’ve heard of me then? Ah, but I do hope they were good things.” He glanced off towards one of the hallways. “I happen to find myself often at somewhat of a loss when it comes to being spoken fondly of. I believe it may have something to do with the whole future vision.” 

Perfect. 

“So what’s the cure for the plague?” 

“Hmm? Plague?” 

Had she misheard him before? Hakuno shook her head. 

“You said that I was thinking about the plague.” 

“I did.” 

“And you see the future.” 

“Indeed, I do.” 

One plus one equals… 

“So you know what I need in order to resolve this problem and be able to go home.” Hakuno waved her hand for him to speak. “So what’s the cure?” 

“Cure?” 

“Merlin, please.” Hakuno sighed. “I really don’t want to deal with too much of this. I need to solve this problem. There is no problem. But there is a problem and we need to solve it. But there’s politics. But you can leave at the end of the week.” 

“You end up not wanting to go home after the week is done.” 

Great. 

“Merlin,” Hakuno looked up at him. “Please, just tell me what I need to know. Make it easier on me.” 

Merlin shrugged, “Hakuno, you are capable of finding the solution. You come up with it in the next few days. However, there are other things you want to know about and that will keep you here. Things are okay. Things are fine, but you have brought a worse problem than was already here to our people.” 

“A worse problem.” 

“Your actions have a very strong chance of meaning the death to everyone here. The pharaoh and his pretty wife, my king, Vlad, even your king and friend.” Merlin shook his head. “Sadly, I was not aware you were here until my king informed me. I would have tried to stop you.” 

“What did I do?” 

“I cannot say.” 

“Cannot or will not?” 

“I could say, but then you would simply go to the king’s room and grovel, feeling entirely guilty and setting an imbalance between you and him. If I say nothing, you figure out yourself what you have done. You feel guilt, but you and the king have the opportunity to put things to rights together. It is not a one way guilt that should be felt.” 

“The cure for this problem is simple then?” 

Merlin nodded. 

“Does it have to do with something Gilgamesh and the others have that Gilgamesh’s people don’t have?” 

Another nod. 

Food would be the same. 

Water was the same too. 

They mostly drank blood though, so that wouldn’t really matter. Soaps, she was pretty sure they were probably the same. 

…

“The lotion.” 

The stuff that they used to be able to go out in daylight. All of the others had it. Gilgamesh and Enkidu used it. She used it- thank God. 

Offhand, she’d never really seen the people use it. Those that did seemed fine. 

Which meant that whatever was in the lotion was holding back the problem. 

Merlin leaned in, chuckling as he watched her. “You are so excited. Look at you. It is the lotion, although you should . There is the other-“

She was leaving. 

There were people quarantined right now that didn’t need to be. Whatever was in the lotion, whatever fruits or whatever, they needed to get a supply to the infected. 

Problem solved. 

“Gil!” 

Gilgamesh was storming towards her. 

She didn’t even think. Her feet carried her more quickly, her body gaining speed as she began to run to him. 

“Gilgamesh! It’s the lotion! It’s that stuff to let us go out into the sunlight!” 

He frowned, but she was already slamming into him, all but leaping into his arms and holding him tight. Her lips pressed against his, body clinging to his to keep against him. 

She could feel his own lips kissing her back, but she pulled back, laughing a little. 

“We just need to get them some of that lotion and you don’t have a single problem. They’ll all be fine.” 

“You’re sure?” 

She nodded. 

The smile she got… oh- but she was pressing her lips to that damn forehead wrinkle. 

The problem was solved. 

She had no reason to stay here! 

“Come with me,” Gilgamesh demanded. 

She went, happily applying the lotion, grabbing a box with a few of the guards remaining, and heading out into the sunlight. 

The light of truth had triumphed yet again. 

_”Gilgamesh,” Hakuno breathed, “I-I…”_

Hakuno paused at the bottom of the ziggurat, her eyes no longer seeing the city. 

_Blood was dripping down the blade of the sword in her chest. The man holding it, adorned in his crimson robes and jewelry proclaiming him as king, was staring at her wide-eyed._

_”H…Hakuno…”_

Something hard hit her head. The world turned to black. 


	11. Escape from the Ziggurat

_Vampirism._

_Hakuno looked at the texts before her and hummed a little as she glanced towards Gilgamesh._

_It was worth a shot. The goddess, Ninsun, had promised that she would be reincarnated if anything happened, but that wasn’t enough. Reincarnation didn’t promise to let her keep Gilgamesh. It didn’t promise that, at the end of the day, they would be able to find one another. She could be born again in a couple years or born again in a few centuries. She could be born in Uruk or she could be born in some strange and impossible land where the cold or where fiery temperatures reigned, making it impossible for strangers to get to her._

_Knowing Ishtar as she did, the goddess would make things difficult._

_These tablets spoke of immortality, of sneaking around the gods and managing something that should have been impossible. Those who had managed it were burned, from what the priests she had seen visiting had told her._

_Sunlight was a factor to consider._

But I would give up the sun to be with Gil, _Hakuno thought._

_Glancing at her arm, to the veins that were starting to show boldly, she knew there wasn’t much time._

_No. Ishtar was getting her, plaguing her with this problem that would only become slowly worsening. The priests had called her cursed. The doctors in the kingdom had murmured- begged really- for her to tell the king and prepare things._

_Prepare for death. As though she would give up so easily. She’d leave these tablets for Gilgamesh to find later._

_“My sweet queen,” Gilgamesh murmured, moving closer to her. Hakuno pulled her sleeve back into place, glancing over at him._

_“You could call me my name,” she told him._

_“I have no reason to do so,” he replied simply. “Enkidu and I are about to wrestle once more. We plan to drive poor Siduri to tears. Come watch.”_

_“Don’t pick on Siduri.”_

_The king merely smirked._

_“Gil, don’t harass your help!”_

_Honestly, it was a wonder the woman didn’t abandon the three of them with the way those two acted._

_“We’re gonna use swords,” Gilgamesh told her._

_“Gil.”_

_“One per hand, like those useless soldiers you were staring at.”_

_Was he truly going to do this?_

_Hakuno started after him as the man gleefully headed from the room. She pulled her skirts into hand, picking up her pace._

_The damned fool._

_How had she fallen for such a man?_

“She’s not needing you to hover over her.” 

“I’m going to wait here.” 

“Gil, the others want explanations. They know about the illness problem now and the problem in its later stages is not being able to be stopped by the solution that Hakuno provided.” It was Enkidu’s voice talking. “We need to think of what to tell the others and we need to ensure that we keep supplies of that lotion up so that we don’t have this problem spread.” 

“We should just slaughter those who are still infected. Finish the problem.” 

“…If we do that and one of us comes into this problem-“

“You said the lotion is stopping it in its earlier stages.” 

“All it takes is one idiot deciding that the problem isn’t real in a few decades and we’ll be dealing with this again. This time though, we’ll be on a real time crunch.” 

“Enkidu, this is not the time.” 

“I realize you are having a moment and a very heartfelt and lovely moment it is, but there are three masters out there that are ready to come in and slaughter us and there are soldiers whose families are becoming a little less loyal with the impending deaths.” 

“Enkidu, you’ve always been able to handle-“

“Oh no. This isn’t my mess to clean. You know that the others will question why you aren’t giving orders.” 

“Smooth talk them.” 

“Arthur never listens to smooth talking, neither does Vlad. Why you allowed for them when they are bullheaded and unwilling to listen like Ramses, I’ll never understand.” 

Did they need to fight right here? 

The sound of their bickering was like a nail being driven into her skull. They were so loud, so obnoxious about their conversation. They couldn’t simply discuss things rationally. They couldn’t just come to some kind of understanding with one another. 

No, why do that when they could argue? 

“Talk to them for five minutes.” 

“I will talk to them later.” 

“Five minutes and you can have the whole damn night to sit with her. It’s been three days. I don’t think she’ll be going anywhere in five minutes.” 

“I sense that she’ll wake up soon. She fidgeted earlier.” 

“Ah, yes. Fidgeting. My friend, I think you’re lacking sleep.” 

“I slept for centuries.” 

“Let me watch her for five minutes. You do trust me, do you not? Allow me to hold onto Hakuno and ensure that she rests properly. Allow me to inform you when she wakes, so you can speak to her and tell her whatever is going on in your head. She is ours, my friend. She is your queen and my only other friend. She means a great deal to me as well.” 

Oh yeah? 

Why did she remember Gil stabbing her and Enkidu just standing passively nearby? 

Oh, but that whole scene was quite a bit different when she wasn’t lying on the floor. That scene was far different when she was upright for a moment longer, being lowered to the floor and the king telling her to stay with him. 

Was it lies? 

All lies? 

It would make sense, since political killings and acting upset in old times would probably be a successful practice. If what little she remembered about ancient times was true, many pharaohs were killed by their advisors, who became pharaohs. Probably the same deal with kings. 

She’d been killed by that man. 

And the other had killed her friend. 

Oh, but Merlin was wrong, Hakuno thought. The magician had said that, at the end of the week, she would want to stay. Well, she was maybe a day or two off and she didn’t want to stay. She wanted to book it for the door and never come back. 

They would pull her back and forth in this mess of feelings and promises and things if she simply opened her eyes and spoke a word to them. Best to wait. 

The moment she had an opening, she’d leave. 

A knock came from a distance away. A somewhat deeper voice spoke up, one that she did not recognize. 

“We have a new problem coming. The guards of the city are surveying now.” 

“Problem?” Enkidu inquired. 

“The church.” 

“Damn,” Gilgamesh was moving away. She could feel the bed lift a little as he was probably climbing off. “Tell Ozymandias to call upon Moses. Enkidu, you’ve dealt with the clergy before.” 

“You must still speak with the others,” Enkidu reminded him. 

“I’ll speak with Ramses and Arthur. Tell the knights to get themselves around.” 

“I will have Bathory and Camilla join,” the other voice told them. 

“Suitable. They’ll no doubt enjoy the women,” Gil replied. 

The door was being locked. 

Hakuno opened her eyes, staring over at it as she tried to listen. It seemed that the room was soundproof. For what reason they would want the room to be that way, she could already guess. 

Her feet slid from the blankets, dangling off the side of the bed as she tried to wait. 

Nothing yet. 

Clergy…

She hadn’t considered the fact that vampires and crosses were supposed to be opposites. If they were preparing to fight priests, then she probably had the best time now to leave. 

The plague wasn’t resolved by the lotion though…

Illness was a better name for the problem, but that was nothing more than semantics. Point being, she could pack up the items, go home, use the lab at her workplace, find a cure, and move on with her life. 

She didn’t have to stay here. 

She wouldn’t. 

Death once was enough. Trying to stay and having feelings for that blond murderer wasn’t really high on her list. Sure, he’d been a good husband for a while in her memories that she’d drudged up, but he’d still stabbed her at the end of it all. 

Betrayal was not something to forgive. 

Merlin was wrong. 

Enkidu could take care of Gilgamesh. 

She was out. 

Entirely. Completely. 

She nudged the door, looking around and sighing in relief at the lack of guards. 

Her mind wandered back, trying to think of the direction towards the labs. She needed the samples from before. They were the best chance for resolving the problems. Along with that, the lab had a supply of that lotion. 

Sunlight would be an issue if she didn’t use the lotion. 

It was time to hurry now though. 

She hurried through another hallway, ducking behind a pillar as she heard a guard pass and enter a room where Gilgamesh and Ozymandias could be heard. 

The door closed. 

The sound was gone. 

Green light, she thought, resuming her hurrying. 

Down the hall, turn right. Down some stairs. 

She recognized bits and pieces, but the hallways were still a maze. For whatever reason, she seemed to know the way. Call it fate. Call it luck. 

She wasn’t sure. She didn’t care. 

Opening up the lab, she began to put the samples into containers, stacking them into a bag nearby for transport. Her arm swept over the shelf with bottles of that lotion. 

It wouldn’t last forever, but she would analyze it and try to make some herself. 

Back to the door. 

Down the hall. 

At this point, she just needed to get to an exit. Any of them would do. 

The doors to the entrance were before her though. She slipped around the doorway, edging her way around the walls but not getting around the pillars. 

The ziggurat was a structure that was literally oversized steps. 

It’d take longer. It’d be annoying, but she could simply slip down one step at a time before making it to the bottom. 

The moon was high, the sun was out of sight. 

_Thank you god,_ Hakuno thought. 

She had to begin by sliding the bag onto her leg, lowering it first, then lowering herself. 

The steps were quite a bit bigger than she had anticipated. 

Had she been human, she’d have probably hurt herself far worse than the scrapes as she went down. She ripped the nightgown at the bottom, wrapping it around both her legs individually to act as guards from the hard and sandpaper-like surface. 

One step. 

Another step. 

She could only hope her samples and the lotion wouldn’t be busted after these smaller drops she did with the bag from her foot to the flat surface of the step below. 

She could only hope no one saw her, although who would look at the back of the palace. 

There were no stairs on this side. Some of the edges were eroded from sandstorms and time. 

Another step. 

And another. 

She was starting to get into a rhythm with this process. She was starting to feel her arms and legs complain at the process of doing this. 

Another. 

Another. 

She turned to go to the next step and found herself on the ground level. Her eyes drifted back up the ziggurat. 

So many damn stairs, and she’d gone down each and every one with her bag in hand. 

Alright, now it was just a matter of getting to the edge of the city. She’d lotion up before approaching a clergy member, claim to be human, escape. 

There were no markers that said she was a vampire, after all. She’d been human all this time. They would have no reason to suspect her. The bag might be confiscated though. 

She looked around a moment before pulling some blankets and things from nearby. 

She’d say it was all linens. Insist that no one look due to undergarments. 

Bag stuffed and samples and lotion protected (and somehow intact), Hakuno hurried towards the edge of the city. 

Everything was so dark. No lights were on, only moonlight leading her way. 

She could hear gunfire in the distance. The sound of people yelling not too far away. 

Further. 

She needed to go just a bit further. 

Hakuno ran until her lungs burned, until her legs complained that she’d done enough exercise. Her mind was running a bit more wild now as she thought about the whole escape. 

Had she taken too long and Gilgamesh knew she was up and out? 

Had anyone seen her? 

Run. 

Run faster. 

She begged mentally for her sprinting to be faster. She pressed to walls when she heard guns go off. 

Faster. 

She needed to be faster. 

Now! 

She could see a couple all-terrain vehicles nearby. She hopped into one and set her back beneath the seat. 

She’d commandeer-

“Hakuno!” 

Hakuno blinked, “…Nero?” 

“Hakuno! Oh my god!” Nero wrapped her arms around her, hugging her tightly. “I didn’t know what to think. Jeanne and I set this up.” 

“We need to go,” Hakuno told her. 

“Right! Buckle up!” Nero stood up, leaning out of the vehicle. “JEANNE! I HAVE HER! WE NEED TO GO!” 

A figure was running towards them. She could hear guards and others shouting as the vehicle kicked up. Hakuno held onto the sit, closing her eyes and panting. 

God. 

“NERO!” Jeanne was yelling from nearby as the vehicle sped through the darkness. “WE HAVE A VAMP ON THE LEFT! GREEN HAIR!” 

“SHOOT ‘EM!” 

Hakuno opened her eyes. 

NO! 

Her mind flickered with the thought of the being. Mornings with the being slipping into her and Gil’s chambers. Afternoons of watching the two wrestle. Evenings of seeing the being dunk or toss Gil’s ass into the river. 

Past life memories, but she found herself still with her vision blurring. 

She could see the being coming close. She could see the gun being aimed. 

She reacted by instinct, watching in horror as the shot hit the being in the leg rather than in the head. She could hear Enkidu’s screech, hear Jeanne cursing and asking her what the hell that was. The being was rolling, dust being kicked up as they rolled across the earth. She couldn’t see if they were alright. She couldn’t see if they were alive. Her mind raced through the memory of them being hit. 

Nero slammed down on the accelerator. 

“WE ARE GOING!” Nero called to them. “SIT DOWN BEFORE YOU FALL OFF!” 

_Enkidu…_

She’d harmed them. 

Her insides twisted as she tried to look into the distance, as she tried to see if the being was alright. If they were breathing and well. 

She hadn’t wanted that to happen. 

“HAKUNO!” Jeanne glared at her. “DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THEIR FACES! THEY HAVE ABANDONED GOD! THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A GOOD VAMPIRE! ANYONE WHO BECOMES ONE OF THEM SHOULD BE HUNTED DOWN AND KILLED!” 

But she was a vampire. 

Hakuno pushed her bag further beneath the seat, closing her eyes. 

Her friends wouldn’t stand by her side if she told them that. They wouldn’t show her mercy. To them, she was nothing more than another beast to hunt down. She was just another wild animal that had gone rabid. God, but they had shot Enkidu!

She felt a strap tap against her leg as the vehicle jumped.

She hadn’t used the lotion yet. 

“CAN YOU PULL UP THE CEILING ON THIS VEHICLE,” she called to the others. “THE WIND IS MAKING MY HEAD HURT!” 

The convertible top to the vehicle was up. 

She slowly reached down and fumbled within the bag, letting herself gather a glob of the lotion into hand. 

“I should have known,” Jeanne stated loudly. “You’d never fall in love at work! You don’t really love people like that.” 

“It’s true!” Nero agreed. “Hakuno is capable of holding back her feelings! She prefers friendship!” 

“Your place was sold though!” Jeanne told her. “We’ll need to have you stay with one of us!” 

“Take me to Emiya’s!” She told them, trying to be casual about the lotion application, trying to merely look like she was wiping sweat off. “I know where his key is!” 

And then, when she found the solution with Emiya’s personal lab equipment, she’d send it Gil’s way and be gone. 

After all, her friends had just informed her that all vampires should be slaughtered. 

She had no friends or home now. 


	12. Strategic Running Away

One insane car ride.

One private flight. 

She stowed her bag under the seat, showing the girls the clothing that she claimed was her own and changing into something provided to her. 

One debriefing from Jeanne. 

One more car ride with Nero driving. 

Hakuno looked up at the building that was home for Emiya, her hands fidgeting with the straps of the bag she’d taken. 

He would never come back. 

At the end of the day, it was upsetting to think that such a brilliant man like Emiya had been killed for no other reason than being in the way of a vampire. The church had been just as bad with the vampires, storming the gates and attacking the people. 

There was blood on these hands now. 

As many lives as she had probably saved, there were that many and then some who had suffered. 

Jeanne had been on the phone, demanding to have the troops search the palace and city for more people. It sounded like a number were dead, another large amount missing. 

Gilgamesh had probably evacuated the city. 

“You’ll be fine,” Jeanne told her in the debriefing. “Emiya’s home is lined with crucifixes. I remember working with him before. The vampires won’t be able to touch the walls.” 

Thankfully, she could use the key to get in the door. 

Sure enough, now that she looked, each wall had a cross. 

Each room was more unsettling now that she knew the church was against vampires. 

Motifs and symbols were in corners and along the baseboards. She didn’t bother to remove her shoes. She kept a cloth on her hands, thankful for the oven mitt on the kitchen counter since the cloth burned beneath her hand after the door to the kitchen. 

Solve the mystery. 

Disappear. 

That was the only requirements she had. The vampires wouldn’t look for her here. 

The church would think she was hiding from the vampires. 

She could barely focus for a while when she reached the man’s lab and set up the samples and lotion on the counter. Her mind was filled with the sight of Enkidu being shot. 

Again. 

And again. 

She hadn’t wanted them shot. 

At the end of the day, she was a healer. She was someone who helped people. 

Blood tests came back normal. 

It looked like the lotion had ingredients similar to some corticosteroid medications she’d seen in the past. Using Emiya’s computer for further research, it seemed like this was a method for handling skin allergies in general. 

Without a patient, this was hard. 

The blood was normal. 

Damn, but it was all normal. 

She shouldn’t have solved the minor cases so quickly. If so, she should have let someone else take the medications to the people. Going with them and remembering Gil was her killer…

Gilgamesh. 

God, she needed to stop calling him Gil. 

A dangerous dose of corticosteroid may help with the symptoms. 

Hakuno glanced towards Emiya’s desk, thinking quietly. 

He was gone. 

His prescription pad was still here. 

How truly unprofessional, but it was to save lives. 

She was at the pharmacy within the hour, picking up the “supplies for the next trip” from the pharmacists. They knew her. They knew how typical this was. There’d be no questions. 

Returning to the house, she looked online again. 

Arthur had mentioned he lived close to his grave. 

With the city of Uruk evacuated and the people gone, the people were either with Ozymandias, Arthur, or with Vlad. 

Vlad was a mystery. Labelling a package of drugs simply to “Count Dracula at 666 Vampire Lane, Romania” was probably the most questionable thing she could do. 

The only thing she knew of Ozymandias and Nefertari was that they lived in Cairo. 

Again, a package addressed to two former pharaohs going through Egypt customs was probably also incredibly questionable. Her luck- it’d end up in the museum and there’d be some overdosing curators who’d use their latest findings. 

So Arthur. 

Arthur was a normal, typical name. 

Knowing he was on the same road or close location to his grave was also helpful. 

In fact, what was more helpful was that there was a rather nice mansion about a few blocks from the grave, according to her findings. An article joking about how Arthur Watson and his associates living in the mansion and bearing names all related to knights was helpful as well. 

As was the picture of Arthur grinning at the camera. 

It wasn’t a perfect cure. 

It was merely a start. 

The box was labeled from Lady Gilgamesh and sent out in the public mail as “Case Sensitive” and with the organization seal on it. 

No one would question the health organization sending out a box to another country. 

She stopped by the gas station on the way home. 

At precisely 20:00 hours, a blaze began at the home of Doctor Emiya. The house burned too quickly for the officials that came to the scene. People were told to back away and avoid getting too close. Hoses were aimed and focused on keeping the blaze from getting to the neighboring houses. 

No one had seen anyone leave. They’d heard voices though. They knew that the doctor was having a woman visit, one who had asked a neighbor an hour before the blaze if they were having trouble with their kitchen appliances or power. 

Clergy were on the scene after an hour. 

People sobbed. 

Others merely watched, fascinated in a macabre kind of manner. 

Death was inevitable. It was quick and violent and it stole away such good people. 

Hakuno listened for a while, remaining hidden in a neighboring yard’s bushes as she listened to it all. Once she knew the clergy believed her dead, she breathed her first sigh of relief. 

She was thirsty, but there was nothing she could do about that. 

Blood wasn’t available so easily on the streets. 

Every step away from Emiya’s home felt like a step away from ever having things normal. Never again would she be able to help people in the way she had before. 

Never again would she be able to introduce herself properly and be remembered. 

It took a few days to get to the border of the country. In the next one, she had to buy a book on the language. 

She stuttered up until she purchased a burner phone. 

Romania was out. The UK was out. 

She couldn’t go to Egypt. 

Despite her name, going to Japan was probably a dumb plan. She couldn’t memorize Japanese. Hell, her English and German talents were questionable. 

Vagabond life would be interesting while she tried to find a private little community to duck into. 

She drank from a hitchhiker who was asleep beneath a bridge. 

She wasn’t proud of that fact. 

She drank from animals in the woods. 

The fur was annoying to drink around. It got stuck in her mouth and she had to find a stream to rinse her mouth out. 

A rogue vampire. 

Who would have guessed? 


	13. Disgruntlement

“She has betrayed us all!”

Gilgamesh rubbed at his temple, trying very hard to keep his temper in check. 

Days of this. Endlessly long days where the pharaoh simply seemed to go back to this statement of Hakuno betraying them all. So the church had come. They had been suspicious from the start about the plague story. 

So Hakuno had vanished and Enkidu had been harmed, he would hear what the being had to say when they awakened. 

And they would awaken, he thought, or he would slaughter the magician nearby who was looking after them. 

“Hakuno was fine with us. She had no reason to betray us or run away.” Arthur shook his head. “I’m still with Gilgamesh on this one, surprisingly enough. She’s a good kid. Young, undeserving of the hell of being trapped with Gil-“

“Can you inform your magician to hurry up,” Gilgamesh interrupted to say. “I would like my friend back on their feet sooner rather than later.” 

“Magic takes time,” Merlin told them. 

And that time was making him enjoy this damned drafty manor of Arthur’s, Gilgamesh thought quietly, looking around and wrinkling his nose. Being trapped in the king’s modern castle was not high on his priorities, nor did it appeal to him on the offset. Being here before had been for the sake of adventure. 

Well, adventure was gone. 

He was not interested in this place anymore. 

“My king!” 

Gilgamesh and Arthur were both glancing towards the knight Bedivere as he entered. At having both their attention, the knight bowed their head. 

“I mean… King Arthur…” He held out the paper underneath his arm. “News.” 

“News?” The man looked over the article, hissing a bit. “…That’s… Bad.” 

Bad meant nothing. 

“Let me see,” Gilgamesh motioned for the paper only to find the other ducking away. 

“It’s not important right now. Your quarantined group need to be seen.” 

“They are of no matter at present.” He motioned for the paper again. “Give me this so called bad news, mongrel.” 

“You need to be here.” 

“Arthur.” 

He hadn’t used that tone in a long while. The king of knights was wincing a little before handing over the document. 

**Blaze Kills Two Doctors**

**Last night, paramedics and the local fire department were called to the city home and separate workplace of Doctor Emiya. The home and workplace burned quickly, making bodies impossible to locate and identify. Neighbors informed police that staying with the doctor was personal assistant and fellow doctor, Hakuno Kishinami. The two are known in their local circles for being part of a team of doctors who venture to various locations throughout the world to investigate word of diseases and illnesses that may not be known. News comes shortly after the alleged interest of Dr. Kishinami and renown philanthropist, Gilgamesh Bilgames…**

“What am I looking at,” Gilgamesh growled. 

“Ramses,” Arthur looked over at the pharaoh, “out of respect for the dead, I think it would be wise to avoid the conversation of Gilgamesh’s deceased queen and discuss how to handle the quarantined victims.” 

“Deceased?” 

Gilgamesh glared at the king of knights. 

He would have felt it. 

The woman couldn’t be dead. 

He’d taken Siduri as a vampire before and had felt her death. It had felt like a part of him had been damaged by the loss. Despite the distance away from one another, he had felt her burn to death under the sunlight. 

Hakuno was alive. 

“…That is… unfortunate,” Ozymandias relented. He settled onto a couch and sighed. “We will need to be careful about who we ask for assistance. Once the being has awakened, perhaps Merlin-“

“We will see, but we need to send food into the room and have the knights and your Moses stand guard,” Arthur informed him. “Perhaps Nefertari could look through her gardens for a possible herbal remedy?” 

“I will ask her,” the pharaoh replied. 

How dare they? 

They simply accepted her dead and left it at that. 

They didn’t question. They didn’t look deeper into it. For all they knew, the church and clergy could have taken his woman. She could have been being tortured, set as a trap for him. 

No, this was unacceptable. 

It was beyond rationale. 

This was cumbersome. 

What he needed right now was for his friend to open their eyes and talk about this with him. He needed Enkidu’s critical thinking and brilliance to accompany his own while he tried to think of a proper way to locate the woman. Hakuno was a doctor, a clever one at that. 

The fact that the neighbors had said she was at that house in the article meant she was up. 

The fact that no bodies had been found was a surefire question about whether she was alive or not. 

After all, he thought, glancing at the article again, he’d personally ensured that the Dr. Emiya and his companions were dead. After Enkidu had arrived with his woman, he’d ventured forth with the being to be safe. 

One wrong fact meant the whole thing was questionable. 

But the others didn’t know that. 

Stating this fact would mean opening up the discussion to whether Hakuno had betrayed them or not. Simply leaving would make the others question her death, since he had never strayed far from Enkidu’s side before. 

His people were safe in Avalon and the ill were locked away in the cellar right now. 

Once Enkidu was up, they would investigate. 

Although it would mean that Hakuno would have time to cover her tracks. 

What to do…

What to do…

Vladimir was looking rather stern, putting up with them all and sipping at his own drink. The man was never one to enjoy these get togethers, since it meant facing the fact that he was a vampire. 

Blood required all vampires to be naturally drawn to one another. It’s what kept their communities together and their people quiet…

Ah…

Then Hakuno would have to find him. 

It was one reason that the system for their communities was so carefully set up. Vampires always went to their masters. And their masters to theirs. The one who bit them was always the most appealing, he’d found. 

Hakuno had drank from him and naturally seemed to be inclined to treat him as master. 

The world was not as big as it used to be before. The world had become globalized. Had she bit a human, even a random one, there would be signs. A blog entry, a social media post, an article of some small newspaper; she’d leave a paper trail. 

He just needed to be nearby. 

Once he knew where she was going, he would merely need to be in the area. She would come to him because she would be experiencing extreme thirst. He’d have to take a few blood packets, but she would drink and then he would have her back. 

The church could not hide her. 

She would know of their threat soon enough, if she didn’t know already. 

And she must, he thought, glancing through the article again. 

If she had been the one to start the fire, it would mean that she had done so to escape something. The church was their only threat. The clergy were their true enemies. 

He’d fiddled around with them before, entertained and killed one of their best, a priest named Kirei. Oh, but he’d been fun when Vlad had been alive. 

Shamefully, he’d confronted him with Vlad. 

Naturally, he’d made Vlad the vampire and then slaughtered the useless priest as betrayal had set in. 

After all, a vampire hunting priest who was not loyal would not be a vampire that was loyal. 

“Gilgamesh?” 

Gilgamesh looked up, glancing between them all. “I am thinking.” 

Arthur nodded. “That may be so, but Gawain said dinner is prepared. Let’s head down to eat and then Ozymandias and his wife must leave to return home.” 

“I am skipping.” Gilgamesh moved to stand up, stretching a bit. “Inform me when Enkidu awakens. I wish to look at the internet.” 

Arthur merely nodded. 

“Denial doesn’t suit you,” Vladimir complained. 

“I am in mourning. You should learn what the difference between them is,” he told the useless man. 

“No,” Vlad shook his head. “Mourning is with tears or violence, with hatred and rage. What you are doing is denying her death. The king of knights says that your woman is dead.” He motioned at the paper. “That news says she is gone. Yet you do not show any indication of mourning. You merely ask for computers.” 

“You should stop reading those crime novels,” Gilgamesh told him simply. “I have no time to entertain your Sherlockian interests.” 

“I haven’t read those books in ages.” 

“Ah, then resume your knitting.” 

A vein twitched on the man’s face. He was glaring at him now. 

Gilgamesh could only smile at the response. “How wondrously entertaining. As usual, dear fellow count, you prove to be worthwhile. You make such a fascinating vampire.” 

“You-“

“Computer then!” Arthur’s hands were on his shoulder, the man laughing a little. “Vlad, why don’t you go help Ozy check on Nefertari. I know the woman was interested in the gardens. Gilly and I are gonna go find that computer and get him that internet!” 

Vlad wasn’t amused by that, but he stood up, motioning the pharaoh to go ahead. 

“Don’t piss him off,” Arthur murmured as the door shut. “I know you’re in pain, but… You have to remember that there’s a whole system relying on you to remain functioning. As annoying as it is to drink from you, I like living.” 

“Do not assume you know my intentions.” 

“I don’t. God I hope I never understand you,” Arthur replied easily. “Just- do your business.” 

Arthur motioned him to sit again, running for it and returning within minutes with a laptop for him. He set it down, bid Merlin to leave Enkidu near him, and left. 

Gilgamesh ran a hand through the being’s hair and began the investigation. 

One could not hide from their king. 

He was far, far more clever than the others gave him credit for. The room was cleared. His friend was resting at his side, their leg recovered at least for the most part. There’d be a small mark showing where they’d been hit, but they were alive. 

Hakuno being dead meant he could avoid the trouble of explanations and arguments with the others. 

Peace at last. 

Ah, but it didn’t take long to find what he was looking for. 

A few dead animals along a road. 

A random human claiming to have been bitten by a female vampire. 

“Oh, my queen consort,” Gilgamesh wrinkled his nose at the animals shown with their necks shredded. 

Animal killings could not sustain the body. There was just something lacking from most. Pigs were suitable, but they were hard to bite into and they were filthy beasts. The ones shown were furry, a gross fact when one didn’t know where those animals had been and what kind of filth they rolled around in. 

Hakuno was going entirely wild. 

Grossly bland. 

He pulled up a map, using the computer’s drawing feature to mark the locations. 

It seemed she was heading for the forests. 

A clever plan, but people would get suspicious of those hiding in the wilderness. People were social creatures. They were about interaction and families. A woman traveling alone and hiding in the woods would call for questions. 

Why was she there? 

Where was her family? 

What had she done? 

“Enkidu,” Gilgamesh murmured to the slumbering being, “it would seem we will need to inform Hakuno to make better choices in the future. Her taste has gone to the depths of hell and back. 

A knight brought him a goblet of blood. 

Another brought fresh sheets for sleeping with the being at his side. 

Gilgamesh pulled the being close and closed his eyes, allowing himself to indulge in a bit of reminiscence. 

Hakuno had mentioned remembering her death. 

He remembered that day as well. 

He’d woken up to the birds, found his woman reading tablets. He’d egged her into following him to the throne room. He’d wrestled with Enkidu and laughed when Hakuno had leaped up and helped the being stop him. 

Then her sleeve had torn. 

He’d demanded answers. 

Ishtar had come, telling him one last time to come to her. 

_Give yourself to me and I will tell the gods to stop killing your woman and that clay being. They’re both decaying and dying._

Enkidu had exchanged a look with him. They’d both glanced towards Hakuno, thinking of the veins showing in her arm.

Hakuno had simply grabbed his sword hand and stabbed herself, cursing the goddess before he had blocked the woman from view. 

Her blood had covered his hand. 

His mind had gone blank. 

He couldn’t remember if he had spoken at first. Only when he had laid her across the floor and Ishtar had told him that he would lose Enkidu next had he heard his own voice. His plain wren of a queen had simply stroked his face and told him they would meet again. 

She’d told Enkidu to go to her desk to finish things. 

Finish things. 

She’d been behind the whole plan for vampirism. 

His clever woman had figured out how to cheat the gods from stealing anyone from him again. 

But he had lost Hakuno. 

She’d stabbed herself to save Enkidu. 

He hadn’t noted that for a while, blinded instead by the goal of achieving immortality. Enkidu at his side, he’d begun the search. He’d encouraged the brilliant minds of the world to connect this planet in one way or another. 

Philanthropy. 

No. It had been greed, longing on his part. 

His treasures gained him more treasures. His power only grew over time. He could move faster than anyone, but his place was now near the back of his armies. As the grand master of them all, he had a duty to keep them all alive. 

And in return, they gave him everything. They did his bidding. 

Except Hakuno…

She would know that he wasn’t in the forests in this continent. What she was planning, he didn’t know. 

“A package came,” Arthur’s voice told him, drawing him from his thoughts once more. “It would seem someone knew to send a shipment of medicine to us.” 

Medicine? 

Gilgamesh grinned, “Use it on the quarantined. I’m going on a trip with Enkidu.” 

“Did they wake up?” Arthur asked. 

“My friend still felt tired. I’ll carry them and head out in a bit.” 

He had a woman to find. 

His people would want their savior to be home. 

“I’ll have Tristan and Merlin pack a bag for you,” Arthur told him. “Just don’t venture for a decade, will you? I hate being in charge.” 


End file.
